The African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) said on Saturday that
the United Nations launched a training program to train a
7,300-strong African peacekeeping force in Sudan's troubled western
region of Darfur.
Addressing a ceremony in al-Fasher, a senior official of the
African Union (AU) Commission, said that the program is aimed at
training the forces with international standards and norms in their
mission in Darfur.
"I'm personally delighted to be associated with this capacity
building package," said Hassan Gibril, acting special
representative of the chairperson of the AU Commission.
Gibril said that the training program "obviously will broaden
the professional outlook of the Military Observers, the Civilian
Police Monitors and the Protection Forces who are being jointly
relied upon for the restoration of peace and security in
Darfur."
The AU peacekeepers have been deployed in three Darfur states to
monitor the implementation of the Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement,
which was signed by the Sudanese government and Darfur rebel
movements in the Chadian capital N'Djamena in April 2004.
All the UN agencies operating in Sudan will take part in the
program, which contains training courses on international human
rights and humanitarian law, measures on building confidence
between local communities and guiding principles to treat
internally displaced persons.
At the moment, UN agencies, including UN Population Fund, High
Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations International
Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) as well as the UN Mission in
Sudan (UNMIS), have operations in Sudan.
"This is the first time that all the UN agencies in Sudan are
brought together to carry out a single task," an official of the UN
Development Program (UNDP), which is responsible for organizing and
coordinating the training program, told Xinhua.
She said that the one-year training program will be cut short in
case that the AU does not agree on an extension of African forces'
mandate which expires on Sept. 30.
As part of the training program, Sudanese experts will be
invited to give lectures on Sudanese legal and customary frameworks
and cultural values.
Henri Morand, deputy resident representative of the UNDP in
Sudan, said that the UN family in the largest country in Africa
"are proud to be offered a training package through a coordinated
and integrated approach."
He added that UN training teams will travel to AMIS forces sites
around the three states in Darfur and provide the training within
the environment in which the forces are operating.
(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2006)
