The United Nations Mission in Sudan welcomed Wednesday an agreement between the Sudanese government, the UN and the African Union on a hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping operation in Darfur.

UNMIS Spokesperson Radhia Achouri told a press conference that the agreement reached by the three parties in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Tuesday, would pave the way for the joint UN-AU peacekeeping mission in the conflict-torn western Sudanese region.

"For both the institutions (the UN and the AU), the most important thing is to expedite the work on the hybrid operation," Achouri said.

She stressed that "the objectives of the operation are to help the Sudanese people and the government and the other stakeholders settling the situation in Darfur."

"That is the crux of the matter as far as we are concerned," the spokesperson added.

She refused to elaborate the details of the agreement, especially the issue of the commandership of the hybrid peacekeeping force, which had been the most disputable issue making the Sudanese government reluctant to accept the hybrid force.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese representative to the Addis Ababa tripartite meeting, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mutrif Sidik, stressed that the hybrid operation would be carried out overwhelmingly by African.

He said that former Foreign Minister of Congo Rodolphe Adada, who had been nominated by the UN and the AU as their joint representative in Sudan, would be the head of the operation when a Nigerian general would be the commander of the hybrid force.

The Sudanese official told reporters after returning to Khartoum from Addis Ababa that absolute majority of the troops and policemen taking part in the peacekeeping force would come from African counties, noting that the number of the non-African troops would be determined by the three parties in their follow-up consultations.

The AU, the UN and Sudan announced at the end of their two-day meeting in the Ethiopian capital that the Khartoum government had "accepted the joint proposals of the hybrid operation" and that delegates at the three-way talks had agreed on the need for a comprehensive ceasefire accompanied by a inclusive political process.

The participants underlined the need for the resolutions and decisions authorizing this operation to be adopted by the UN Security Council and the AU Peace and security Council.

Source: Xinhua