Sudan will have to accept non- African peacekeepers in the UN-sponsored Darfur peacekeeping action or face new United Nations sanctions, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday.
"We expect the Sudanese government to implement what they have agreed to, which is if we can't get sufficient trained troops, we will go outside of Africa, which I have to say I expect will happen," Andrew Natsios, the U.S. special envoy for Sudan, told reporters in a conference call.
"We are going to try ... to recruit from Africa, but it's very clear from already talking to African leaders and African militaries that there are not enough African troops who are trained for peacekeeping operations to make up this force," Natsios said. "We are going to have to go outside of Africa."
"If there is an attempt to renegotiate what was negotiated already with the Sudanese government, then we will introduce a sanctions resolution before the UN," Natsios said.
The U.S. official did not say how many non-African troops and police would be required to fully staff the UN hybrid peacekeeping mission.
There are now 7,000 African personnel in the African Union mission in Darfur, most of which are expected to stay on after its command changes on or before a Dec. 31 deadline.
Source: Xinhua
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