allAfrica.com: Sudan: Darfur Peacekeeper Warns of High Expectations (Page 1 of 3)

When the new African Union-United Nations hybrid force for Darfur (Unamid) deploys at the end of the year, its commander expects to have only half the 20,000 troops planned for. Moreover, while he needs a minimum of 30 to 38 military helicopters for his task, right now not a single country in the world has pledged even one.

His main problem, General Martin L. Agwai says in this interview, is the high expectations which Unamid faces. He spoke to allAfrica in Cape Town, where he was addressing a seminar at the city's Centre for Conflict Resolution.

General, it's been suggested that you have the toughest job in Africa?

To a very large extent it's a very tough job. What makes it even tougher is the high expectations, especially when people hear about the hybrid force. A lot believe that by December 31 we'll have a hybrid force that will help provide security for the IDPs (internally displaced persons) and also some of the refugees and then they'll be able to go back home. That is the expectation… in the IDP camps, in the international community and among the humanitarian agencies.

You've been in Darfur for much of this year heading the African Union mission, of about 7,000 [AMIS]. Sketch for our readers the difficulties of fulfilling your mandate.

Well, first of all, let me correct the notion - I don't even have 6,000 troops on the ground. What we have is just a little bit above 5,000… If you look at the mandate, it was initially an observer mission, to observe the peace agreement [the Darfur Peace Agreement of 2006], to make sure that people were conforming to what they accepted. It was a small mission to… verify any ceasefire violation. But today people expect that small mission even to provide security for civilians, when it cannot even provide security for itself. So that is the first challenge, the numbers.

Second, if you have been to Darfur, you will find that there are no roads, there are no means of communication. In the rainy season, when it rains there is no way you can even go out on patrol because the whole area is flooded, the wadis are flooded. We don't have the right vehicles to go into such terrain… Even by air, by helicopter, the shortest distance [to an AMIS camp] is 30 minutes by helicopter. If you try to do it on a good smooth day by road, it's about 3-1/2, four hours. If you want to go… to Malha in the north by helicopter, it's 2-1/2 hours. So these are these are the types of distances we are talking about.

Then there is the issue of water. [From] some of our camps, you have to go over five kilometres just to get water for our own forces, not helping anybody else.

To crown it all, there's not only the issue of numbers, but what is the agreement in the DPA? If you want to investigate a ceasefire, you have to invite all the stakeholders. Remember, some of the stakeholders are not signatories to the DPA. How do you get all the people that don't agree to now agree to go and investigate a ceasefire violation?

How will the mandate differ for the hybrid force?

The mandate has to go with the force level and the equipment. In the hybrid force we hope to have military utility helicopters. Then you can take more risks, you can give orders to military pilots, because that is what they are trained for.

What do we have now? Because of the rules that the civil pilots have to observe… there are a lot of things we want to do that we can't. We hope that this new force will have those. And if we do then we will be able to protest ourselves, we'll be able to protect the UN and AU resources and personnel, we'll be able to provide a degree of security to the humanitarian agencies and we'll be able to provide at least area security for the locals that will give them some confidence to be able to start thinking of going home.

How many military helicopters do you need? How many have you got?

The minimum, not the ideal but the minimum… [is] 18 utility helicopters, and about 12 to 18 combat helicopters that can go to do reconnaissance and other things. As of today, there is no country in the world that has volunteered to give us that capability – zero. And that's why I am saying that by December 31 there are lots of expectations, but the reality on the ground is different…

You must have heard about the attack we had on our camp in Haskanita [on September 30], when we lost 10 of our peacekeepers. After the attack we wanted to go to the area… to move the injured. It took us about eight hours because the civil pilots couldn't take the risks… If we had military helicopters, we would have been able to arrive there much, much earlier, and we may have been able to save maybe one or two lives.

Who has agreed to contribute to the hybrid force and what have they agreed to?

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