Document - Sudan: Empty Promises on Darfur: Egypt factsheet

Empty promises on Darfur

Egypt Fact sheet

During 2007, the Egyptian authorities provided police and military observers to the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS). When the joint United Nations-African Union mission UNAMID took over from AMIS on 1 January 2008, Egypt had 17 troops, 74 police officers and 11 military observers deployed in Darfur.

PLEDGES BY EGYPT

In September 2007, Egypt formally pledged to provide UNAMID with a multi-role engineering company of 335 troops, a transport unit of 150 troops, and a signal company of 185 troops. According to UN reports, these troops were all meant to deploy to Darfur by mid-February 2008¹.

In 2007, the Sudanese Government expressed reservations towards non-African units taking part in UNAMID, and expressed its wish to receive African troops in the early stages of UNAMID’s deployment. As a result, a task force from the African Union and the United Nations travelled to Egypt and Ethiopia to ask both countries to accelerate their deployment in the beginning of 2008. Egypt agreed to start deploying in January 2008.²

Egypt did not however deploy as scheduled.

In March 2008, the African Union Peace and Security Council reported that Egypt would begin the deployment of an infantry battalion of 850 troops to UNAMID³.

Although figures attributed to Egyptian officials’ statements differ, some press reports allege that Egypt pledged to provide a total of 2500 troops. Its total troop contribution would include three police units, military observers and two infantry battalions.⁴

Between August and September 2008, the United Nations, the African Union and the Government of Sudan agreed to support the possible self-deployment of the second Egyptian battalion, after the first battalion had almost completed its deployment. ⁵

According to the same UN report, an Egyptian police unit was also said to be expected by the end of 2008.⁶

CURRENT STATUS

According to UN reports, by the end of December 2008, Egypt had provided UNAMID with 1386 troops, 55 police, and 12 military observers, making a total of 1453 troops⁷.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Egypt has the military capacity to play a larger role in supporting UNAMID and should immediately deploy its full complement of peacekeepers, including troops, police and military observers pledged but not yet deployed.

• Egypt should use its influence and undertake all diplomatic efforts to encourage other countries, especially in the League of Arab States, to ensure that UNAMID is provided with all the necessary air and ground transport equipment, as well as other essential human, material and financial resources.