UN Troops To Deploy To Darfur -- UK PM

UN Troops To Deploy To Darfur -- UK PM Gordon Brown

Darfur will receive one of the UN's largest ever deployments of peace-keeping troops in the coming weeks, the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said.

In an article for the Times, the Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that UN and African Union personnel totalling 20,000 troops and 4,000 police will arrive in the war-torn area of Sudan to "ensure the security of Darfur's people" and help with humanitarian assistance.

The article was also published in French in Le Monde newspaper and included a promise from both leaders to "redouble" their efforts.

They said:

"The important UN Resolution 1769 is not the end but just the starting point of the international efforts we must mount to stop the killing and to bring peace to this troubled region. The troop deployment is only one stage in the process of bringing peace, and we cannot wait a moment longer for intense international action to secure a ceasefire.

"If progress is not made on security, the ceasefire, political process and humanitarian access, we will work together for further sanctions against those who fail to fill their commitments, obstruct the political process, or continue to violate the ceasefire."

The two leaders also promised to provide more help with economic reconstruction and "grass-roots development". The four-year conflict has seen more than two million people displaced as a result of civil conflict between rebel forces, government troops and the government-backed Janjaweed militia. The UN estimates that as many as 450,000 people have died as a result of violence and disease.

ENDS

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