Regional players fail to pledge financial aid

The EU has criticised African and Arab states for not contributing financial pledges at a Darfur donors' conference this week. Donations of €175 million in cash and logistics was pledged mainly by the US and EU towards continuing the African Union mission (AMIS) in Darfur and supporting the peace agreement signed in May.

The Democratic Republic of Congo and Qatar were the only African and Arab states to make a donation.

The EU's envoy to Darfur Pekka Haavisto said there had been an expectation that more states would contribute while the European Commission said it was "a little bit disappointed" at the lack of pledges from regional players.

"At the African Union summit and the Arab league summit in Khartoum we heard a lot of talk about the regional support to AMIS, we heard about expectations towards the Arab league to support the AMIS further and here in Brussels we didn't see that kind of pledges," said Haavisto.

"There are countries in the region that are doing reasonably well that could be in a position of supporting such a mission," he added.

The Commission said while the Congo contribution of €75,000 was "most symbolic and highly appreciated" the Qatar pledge of €6.75 million was not substantial. "There is a feeling that they [Arab states] are willing to contribute once the situation stabilises," said a Commission spokesman.

In total the EU pledged €85.5m, including pledges from the Commission (€30m), the UK (€20m), the Netherlands (€20m) and France (€2m). EU member states said they were prepared to offer more money in the future. The US pledged $116m (€92m) most of which is in the form of logistics such as training and technical assistance.

The donors' conference was organised against the backdrop of continued fighting in Darfur despite a peace agreement. Some rebel groups have yet to sign up to the agreement and the under-funded and under-staffed AMIS is not able to deal with the situation. While the African Union, the US, the EU and the United Nations want a UN mission to take over when the AMIS mission expires in September, the Sudanese government is opposed to this. It says that it is happy with the current mission but it is understood it fears a UN force would result in people accused of war crimes being handed over to the International Criminal Court.

Haavisto said he was "quite confident" that a UN mission would be accepted by Sudan given the African Union was unwilling to extend its mission.

"If the government of Sudan thinks the Darfur situation can be solved without a peacekeeping operation they will see it go back to 2003 - military fighting on the ground and huge insecurity in the camps," said Haavisto.

"They know Sudan cannot handle such a situation and we as the international community will be blamed...genocide type of actions can easily take place without an international presence."

The EU has criticised African and Arab states for not contributing financial pledges at a Darfur donors' conference this week. Donations of €175 million in cash and logistics was pledged mainly by the US and EU towards continuing the African Union mission (AMIS) in Darfur and supporting the peace agreement signed in May.