UN sending peacekeepers to monitor Sudan
The Associated Press
March 25, 2005
UNITED NATIONS - After weeks of negotiations, the UN Security Council unanimously voted Thursday to send 10,700 peacekeepers to Sudan to monitor an accord ending a 21-year civil war between the government and southern rebels.
The Security Council hopes the move will not only create lasting peace in southern Sudan after the civil war but help end current violence in the country's western Darfur region, where the number of dead from a conflict between government-backed militias and rebels is now estimated at 180,000.
The U.S.-backed resolution asks that the new mission work with an African Union peace mission in Sudan "with a view toward expeditiously reinforcing the effort to foster peace in Darfur."
"We remain very concerned and disturbed by the situation in Darfur," deputy U.S. ambassador Stuart Holliday said.
Conflict has engulfed Darfur since February 2003, when two non-Arab rebel groups took up arms against the Arab-dominated government to win more political and economic rights for the region's African tribes.
Sudan's Arab government is accused of responding by backing Janjaweed militiamen who have carried out rapes and killings against Sudanese of African origin.
