Hopes for Darfur rest on African force

A beefed-up African peacekeeping force has emerged as the best hope of averting humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur after the Sudanese President defiantly brushed aside pressure to admit UN troops.

In almost two hours of talks, Omar al-Bashir, the President of Sudan, told the European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, that he feared his country would suffer the same fate as Iraq if UN soldiers were to intervene.

Diplomats are now concentrating on proposals to strengthen a 7,000-strong African Union (AU) force already in Darfur. They believe Mr Bashir might allow the addition of some UN components providing there is no American involvement and that control remains in African hands.

The search for a solution was given added urgency by warnings from the World Food Programme (WFP) that 155,000 people have not received food for four months because of an increase in violence.

Although the AU has promised to keep its 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur for three more months, the force has been unable to provide security in a region racked by three years of bloody warfare.

The latest round of diplomacy exposed the Sudanese leader's hostility to the US. Mr Bashir made no public statement yesterday but his ally, the governor of northern Darfur, Osman Yousif Kibir, said bluntly that UN troops "will not be welcomed by our people".

Mr Barroso struck a pragmatic tone, saying his goal was "not to discuss the format of the mission". Rather than insisting on blue-helmeted peacekeepers, the Commission president said the UN has to be present "in a more effective way".

Saturday's meeting with Mr Bashir included a 50-minute, one-to-one session with Mr Barroso. Afterwards the European Commission president said the Sudanese leader "keeps his position opposed to it [the UN force]" but added: "I really believe he was listening to us. I think he understood that it is not in the interests of Sudan to come back to a situation of complete isolation."

Mr Barroso, who was involved in the Angolan peace negotiations, will meet African leaders at a summit in Addis Ababa today to consult them over their approach to an expanded AU force.

Since the conflict in Darfur began more than 200,000 people have died and 2 million have been displaced. A peace agreement signed in May has prompted an increase of violence because only one of the warring militias signed it.

Fear of fresh humanitarian disaster prompted a UN resolution calling for a 20,000-strong contingent of peacekeepers. But last week the UN's Sudan envoy, Jan Pronk, conceded that instead of applying pressure for such a force, "the international community should instead push for the African Union's mission to be prolonged and reinforced".

That contrasted with a statement from the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who warned Sudan that it had a choice between co-operation and confrontation.

On the ground the AU force lacks equipment and has proved difficult to co-ordinate. Most soldiers do not speak Arabic and have struggled to engage with refugees in camps dotted around main settlements. Officers complain of having strict rules of engagement and say their mission was poorly prepared.

In Darfur, aid agencies reported difficulties in dealing with the humanitarian crisis because of poor security, despite the presence of the AU soldiers. In a WFP compound in El Fasher, a spokesman, Simon Crittle, pointed to a food delivery truck which had been hijacked by militia. "There is an incident every couple of weeks," he said. "Drivers are stopped, dragged out of their vehicles and beaten up. There are certain roads we won't go down."

The WFP delivered 500,000 tons of aid last year and aims to feed 2.7 million people. It reached 2.4 million of them in August.

Sara Caimi, of the Italian NGO Cooperazione Internationale, said the main problem was the shifting balance of power in Darfur as rebel groups take over new chunks of land.

"We can be dealing with the government and then, tomorrow, we have to deal with someone else," she said.