Faced with enforcing the ceasefire agreement amidst threats by rebel groups to resume war, Commander of AU Forces in Darfur Gen. Collins Ihikere Monday appealed for additional troops.

In a news briefing in the Nigerian capital Abuja, he said 7,000 troops presently in Sudan's war-torn Darfur were "grossly inadequate."

"We are asking for more troops in Darfur in view of the tasks ahead," he said, adding that "Liberia, for instance, has 15,000 troops and the entire country is not up to a quarter of Darfur."

"If we are to cover everyone in Darfur, there must be additional troops," Ihikere said.

Ihikere, who also spoke on wide fears of a resurgence of violence as threatened by a faction of the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM), advised the rebels "not to do it."

"It is in their own interest not to do it. In any case, we are ready to contain such," he said.

He said it was a path of honor for the rebels to keep the peace and expressed hope that there would be no violence since majority of the rebels had signed the Abuja peace agreement.

"Almost everybody is in the peace train and the earlier the SLM faction joins, the better," he said.

He described the peace agreement signed last Friday in Abuja by the warring factions as "very historic."

"It is the first time in the history of Africa that peace was negotiated to end a war. The usual thing we have always witnessed is the negotiation of defeat," he stated.

He reaffirmed his troops' commitment to neutrality in securing the peace and challenged leaders of the rebel groups to place the plight of their people above every other consideration.

The rebel groups took up arms in Sudan's arid Darfur region in February 2003, accusing the government of negligence. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and about one million others displaces in the conflict.

Source: Xinhua