The Sudanese government said on Tuesday that it has deployed another 2,000 policemen in Darfur to secure the situation in the area under an agreement with the United Nations. 

Sudan's Interior Minister Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein told reporters that "under an agreement with the UN on securing the situation in Darfur states, an additional force of 2,000 policemen has been deployed in Darfur states."

Required military equipment and vehicles will be airlifted to the police force, he said, noting that the deployment came upon a governmental plan to reinstate security and stability in Darfur states.

The first stage of the plan, which was successfully completed last week with the deployment of 6,000 policemen to secure refugee camps and facilitate the volitional return of displaced persons, the minister said.

The Sudanese authorities on Sunday submitted to the UN a list of 11 areas that had been made secure.

The list had been drawn up in accordance with a plan of action thrashed out by the two sides earlier this month.

Darfur, which has witnessed an 18-month conflict between the Janjaweed and two African rebel groups, with over 10,000 people killed and 1 million people displaced, is considered the site of the worst humanitarian crisis by the United Nations.

The Sudanese government has been accused of backing Arab militiamen, known as the Janjaweed to attack African rebel groups in Darfur, which was strongly denied by Khartoum.

The UN Security Council passed a resolution on July 30, giving the Sudanese government 30 days to disarm the Janjaweed or face international sanctions.

The UN one-month deadline was given to the Sudanese government to achieve tangible progress on solving Darfur crisis not to settle the problem altogether as understood by some, UN envoy to Sudan Jan Pronk said Monday after meeting with Sudan's First Vice President Ali Othman Taha.  

(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2004)