The African Union (AU) said on Tuesday that it did not intend to evacuate its staff from the joint peacekeeping security operation with the UN in western Sudan's Darfur region after the International Criminal Court's (ICC) chief prosecutor requested issuing an arrest warrant against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.
"I left my meeting with the president with the confidence that all the measures had been taken by Khartoum to continue the work of the joint mission," said the AU's Commissioner for Peace and Security Ramadan Said al-Amamry.
He confirmed that the mission will continue its work, adding that "we are discussing further deployment of our troops as our recent plan is to deploy about 80 percent of the total troops during the remaining months of the year."
Al-Amamry denied that the command of the joint mission started to evacuate any of its staff, saying that "there was not any kind of evacuation for our staff, precaution measures have been taken after the recent attack on the mission. We made the civil staff free, either choose to work or have an administered vacation."
"The African Peace and Security Council earlier issued a statement in which it affirmed its rejection to the targeting of any African official, pointing out that there would be a ministerial meeting of the council to declare the final stance," said al-Amamry, referring to the position of the AU toward the move of the ICC's chief prosecutor.
The AU and the UN have directed the joint peacekeeping mission in Darfur since the beginning of 2008. But the mission faces major difficulties, including the significant shortage in its number and equipment. So far, only about 9,000 troops out of the joint mission's total 26,000 troops, were deployed.
Earlier on Monday, ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accused Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir of genocide and crimes against humanity, under which he said he would urge arrest warrants against him and some senior Sudanese officials.
Source:Xinhua
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