UN scales back deployment targets for Darfur mission

The UN Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has downscaled expectations of meeting deployment targets owing to difficulties in securing commitments from UN member states for troops and equipment for the hybrid operation in Sudan's western state.

A target of 80 per cent of the mandated 26,000 troops has been pushed back from December until March 2009, UNAMID spokesman Kemal Saiki told Jane's on 13 October. He added that, instead, the mission will aim to achieve 65 per cent deployment by the end of the year.

Just 10,000 personnel are currently deployed to Darfur, where an estimated 300,000 people have died and more than 2.5 million have been displaced in more than five years of conflict. 114 of 386 words