By Daniel Ooko
NAIROBI, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The failure of world leaders to keep their promises on peacekeeping has condemned many Darfurians to suffering without protection from violence, a newly released report said on Wednesday.
The report by the Darfur Consortium, a coalition of more than 50 African and international human rights and civil society organizations which is based on interviews with Darfurians, experts and aid workers, depicts a force hamstrung by lack of equipment, training and uniformed personnel, and by its own shortcomings, and concludes that many Darfurians feel no safer than they did before the force arrived.
"The people of Darfur deserve more than empty words and broken promises. One year ago the UN Security Council stood unanimous and promised Darfurians the strongest and largest protection force ever. Today that force is just over a third deployed, lacks even the most basic equipment and is unable to protect itself let alone civilians," said Dismas Nkunda, spokesperson for the Darfur Consortium.
"The international community needs to urgently bolster its support to the brave, mostly African peacekeepers. The truth is stark but simple, the international community's failure to act is costing lives."
The report, Putting People First: The Protection Challenge Facing UNAMID in Darfur, reviews the performance of the Darfur peacekeeping force (UNAMID) in the six months since it was deployed.
UNAMID currently has a little over 9,000 of the 26,000 troops promised -- the majority simply re-hatted from the previous African Union peacekeepers.
The force lacks helicopters and armoured vehicles and is so woefully under-resourced that some former AU soldiers have been reduced to painting their helmets blue to denote that they are now a part of a UN mission.
The lack of new troops means that the current peacekeepers are unable to leave their field posts and receive the latest UN training.
While UNAMID urgently needs more support, the report concludes that the force could already be having a greater impact on people's lives.
It says that UNAMID could do more to prioritize key protection activities, and that inconsistent interpretation of its mandate has hampered its impact on the ground.
Although UNAMID does not have the capacity to respond to large-scale fighting, it could do more to protect people from the day-to-day violence that scars their lives -- such as preventing attacks on women as they collect firewood.
The report says commanders must prioritize regular patrolling in camps and rural areas, and along main roads to help facilitate the safe delivery of humanitarian aid.
Where such activities have been carried out, the report finds they have made a positive difference. However, they do not happen nearly often enough.
One Darfurian woman quoted in the report said: "We go out to collect firewood two or three times a week and I'm scared all day. I wish UNAMID would come with us. Sometimes armed men rob us or beat us. Some women have been raped or killed. If UNAMID came with us these men would not dare to attack us."
Reacting on the issue, UNAMID head Rodolphe Adada said he concurs with the report that the operation faces critical shortages in troops, personnel, equipment and logistics.
In a statement received here Wednesday, Adada thanked the Darfur Consortium for "adding its voice to that of UNAMID's leadership in urging the international community to live up to its commitments and facilitate the Mission to implement its mandate."
Adada said that despite the difficulties it faces, UNAMID continued to do everything it could to fulfill its tasks and provide as much protection as possible for the people of Darfur, humanitarian workers and for its own personnel.
He cited recently launched air patrols by UNAMID police, as well as night patrols, firewood patrols and other regular patrols already being carried out by the mission.
He added that the recent attack on peacekeepers at Um Hakibah in North Darfur, in which the force lost seven peacekeepers, was an example of the dangers that the mission faced, but he said this had not dampened the resolve of UNAMID to fulfill its mandate.
Recent weeks have starkly illustrated the challenges facing UNAMID troops on the ground. On July 8, the deadliest attack on the force so far left seven African peacekeepers killed and others critically wounded. A few days later another was shot dead.
UNAMID's current mandate is due to expire later this month, and Security Council members have been holding consultations on a draft resolution to extend the mission.
