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EU say they have run out of cash for Darfur peacekeepers
European Union funding for an African peacekeeping force in Darfur has run out, and the United States and Arab League should help cover the costs until a replacement force arrives, the EU's aid chief said on Friday. "At the Commission level we are dry and we cannot find any more additional resources," European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel told a news conference.

The Commission and EU states have given over 400 million euros ($537.8 million) to the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) since it was deployed to Sudan's violent western Darfur region in 2004 to try to ease the humanitarian crisis there.

The United Nations has proposed working with the African Union to send a better-equipped force to the area, but Michel said AMIS still needed cash before the new operation started. "Other donors besides the Commission must find the resources to make the transition from the AMIS force to the African Union/United Nations hybrid force," Michel said. "I would like to call on the United States and the Arab League to contribute to financing this transition," he said.
We'll match the Arab League dollar for dollar.
Diplomats say a resolution to send the new international force could come to a vote at the U.N. Security Council next week, but that peacekeepers could take six months to deploy.
Posted by: lotp 2007-06-30
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=192100