Arsenal News Story

03 December 2008 00:00 BST

Darfur helicopter plea on first anniversary

The international community has been condemned for failing to provide the helicopters desperately needed by peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region.

A report published on the first anniversary of the UN's approval for a peacekeeping force notes with frustration the ongoing shortage of air support for troops on the ground.

None of the 18 transport helicopters requested by the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (Unamid) have been delivered, a state of affairs attacked by statesmen including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, senior UN diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, former US president Jimmy Carter and south African politician Graca Machel.

They point out the report's findings that a number of countries, including the Czech Republic, India, Italy, Romania, Spain and Ukraine, have the helicopters required and which are not on active duty.

"Many of these helicopters are gathering dust in hangars or flying in air shows when they could be saving lives in Darfur," the write in the report's foreword.

It suggests Nato member states alone could provide 104 helicopters for the Darfur region.

A lack of air support was deemed vital to Unamid's success prior to its deployment at the beginning of this year.

The limited mobility ground troops suffer has reduced their impact significantly, experts say. A report published last week by the Darfur Consortium warned the mission faces failure without receiving further resources.

Hollywood star George Clooney, a UN peace messenger for his work on Darfur, said: "Many governments have offered expressions of concern, but few have offered the most basic tools necessary to keep civilians safe and for peacekeepers to do their job.

"It is time for governments to put their helicopters where their mouths are."

In August 2007 the UN approved a 26,000-strong force of peacekeepers to be deployed in Darfur.

Since then troop numbers on the ground have not risen much above 9,000, most of whom having been "re-hatted" from the pre-existing African Union force.

There are now concerns that peacekeepers are losing their lives as a direct result of the helicopter shortage. Earlier this month troops were "outmanned and outgunned" in an ambush in Darfur, resulting in the deaths of seven, spokesperson Amjad Atallah said.

"On today's anniversary of the mission it's time the international community got serious about enabling peacekeepers to do their job of protecting civilians and handed over these helicopters," he commented.

The five-year-old Darfur conflict has left an estimated 300,000 people dead. Over four million people in Darfur and eastern Chad require urgent humanitarian assistance, while an estimated 2.5 million are living in overcrowded refugee camps.