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UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United Nations and the African Union agreed Thursday on a highly mobile, robust joint force to help protect civilians and restore security to the Darfur region — but Sudan still holds the key to its deployment.
The 39-page report proposes tripling the number of peacekeepers now in Darfur with an AU-U.N. "hybrid" force of at least 23,000 soldiers and police allowed to launch pre-emptive attacks to stop violence.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the current Security Council president, said he hopes the council will adopt a presidential statement on Friday urging the Sudanese government to cooperate fully in "the expeditious start-up and implementation of the U.N.-AU hybrid operation."
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