Darfur peacekeepers understaffed, underequipped and now under fire

As the sound of a lone bugle playing "The Last Post" rang out, the body of Cdr Anthony Aalene Bozie, draped in the Ghanaian flag, was lifted on to the back of a pick-up truck and taken to the airport. Soldiers from Rwanda, Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana lined the route and saluted.

Such scenes have become all too familiar for the African Union (AU) forces in Darfur. Cdr Bozie was the 10th AU soldier to be killed in April - the deadliest month of its three-year mission in Sudan.

The African Union Mission in Sudan (Amis) was heralded by the international community as an "African solution to an African problem". Its role is to protect civilians from attacks by government-backed militia and rebel groups.

But Amis is not even able to protect itself. It is under-staffed, underequipped and increasingly under fire from rebel groups which believe it has become little more than an extension of the Sudanese government. Darfurians now refer to Amis as the "African Mistake in Sudan" and senior Amis officials are openly asking whether they are serving any purpose being here.

"Amis is doing what it can within the limits of its capabilities," said Brig General E Rurangwa, the deputy commander. "We don't have enough personnel and we don't have enough equipment. It makes it difficult to intervene. You have to protect yourself."

As the security situation has deteriorated, Amis has been concentrating on protecting itself. Amis is supposed to carry out up to 50 patrols a day, protecting women while they collect firewood and go to markets. But patrols are down to as few as three a day across the whole of Darfur, and are optimistically referred to as "confidence-building".

While the soldiers stay in their barracks, nearly four million people remain affected by the conflict. More than 100,000 people were displaced in the first three months of the year. Even those patrols Amis does carry out do not prevent violence. Those living in the camps refer to Amis as the "report writers".

The death of Cdr Bozie has heightened fears among Amis troops. He was shot just 120m from the entrance to Amis headquarters in El Fasher. One Ghanaian officer said: "If I go outside the compound now I am a target." Despite strong words from President George Bush and Tony Blair, Darfur is stuck with Amis. A UN Security Council resolution passed last August authorised the deployment of a 22,000-strong force. But Sudan simply refused to allow the force to enter, and the idea of Western troops shooting their way into a Muslim Arab country was never seriously considered.

Sudan agreed to a so-called AU/UN "hybrid force" last November but has since stalled at every stage of its three-phase deployment.

Phase two, the "heavy support package" of 3,000 UN personnel and equipment such as helicopters, was "re-agreed" by Khartoum last week. Even so, it will take at least six months before it is all in place.

For now, Amis struggles to soldier on. But it is not only personnel they are lacking - even the most basic equipment is absent. At the forward headquarters in El Fasher, few offices have phone lines. Officials are forced to rely on mobile phones but the network is often down for days on end. Communication often breaks down between the headquarters in Khartoum and El Fasher. Faxes are lost and phone calls and emails not returned.

Communications are also a problem in the field, raising serious security concerns. Most of the vehicles do not carry communication equipment. Two-way radios are only just being handed out.

Staff, including senior commanders, have not been paid for four months. Several battalions set to go home were unable to leave until they had been paid. Every day they stayed they were owed more money. The mission was forced to find hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional pay.

And the 150 language assistants, who the mission relies upon to translate when they go out on patrol, went on strike for five months after not being paid.

Morale, understandably, is low. Soldiers are sitting in their barracks, counting the days until they are allowed to go home. "The mission is a joke," said one senior official. "If we are not achieving anything here, why are we still here?"

Dr Madawi Ibrahim, a Darfurian expert with extensive knowledge of the rebel movement, said Amis has been a "disaster" for Darfur. "The AU lacks leadership. They just don't know how to do things."

The Amis mandate expires at the end of June. Twice in the past 12 months it has been renewed at the last minute, with the promise of extra funds and troops - neither of which have been supplied. There is no guarantee that the AU will agree to renew the mandate once more. Despite its problems, diplomats in Sudan believe that it would be catastrophic for Darfur if the AU left.

The mission is the AU's first attempt at peacekeeping. A failure here would cast serious doubt over the AU's ability to carry out peacekeeping missions in Africa on its own. "If they fail here it will be a disaster for Africa and for the UN," said Dr Ibrahim. "Let us pray they do not fail."

Who's taking action in Darfur

* About 7,000 African Union troops have been deployed in Darfur since May 2006. This force includes 608 military observers from 25 countries and a protection force of 4,449 soldiers. Senegal threatened to pull out after five of its soldiers were killed this month.

* The African Union says it does not have the money to fund the operation for much longer. The latest UN plan is to increase the number of troops to 22,000 with an AU-UN hybrid force but Sudan currently says it will allow only 3,000 extra troops.

* Several aid agencies have suspended all but essential work in Um Dhukun, affecting about 100,000 people. Oxfam, Save the Children, Mercy Corps and Triangle blamed increases in violent attacks on aid workers.

* Conflict in Darfur began in early 2003 between government forces, Arab militias and rebels. Since then more than two million people have been displaced in Sudan and Chad. Research published last year in the journal Science puts the numbers of additional deaths caused by the conflict at "no fewer than 200,000".

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