The United Nations is preparing to
dispatch 10,000 peacekeepers to Sudan to monitor an accord to end the
civil war there, the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping
operations said Friday. "We are gearing up to deploy 10,000 troops in
Sudan to support the North-South process," Jean-Marie Guehenno told
reporters as he prepared for talks at the Pentagon and State
Department. Guehenno said, "A breakthrough has been achieved, but it is
a fragile process," and he added that "there is potential for spoilers
in the south." The United Nations has said it plans to deploy troops
within six months, during which time the government and rebels have
committed under a Jan. 9 peace deal to set up a national power-sharing
administration with an autonomous south. At the end of a six-year
transition period, the 10 southern states will hold a referendum on
whether to become independent. Sudan's southern civil war has pitted
the government, led by Arab Muslims who dominate the north, against
rebels fighting for greater autonomy and a greater share of the
country's wealth in the mainly black Christian and animist south. The
conflict is blamed for more than 2 million deaths, primarily from
war-induced famine and disease. Africa's longest-running conflict was
sparked in February 2003 when two non-Arab African rebel groups took up
arms for more power and resources. The government responded with a
counterinsurgency campaign in which a mostly Arab militia known as the
Janjaweed has committed wide-scale abuses against tribes it says are
allied with the rebels. Disease and malnutrition are believed to have
killed more than 70,000 of the nearly 2 million displaced in Darfur
since March. [more]