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U.N. gets offers of troops for Darfur

Tanzania, Nigeria and Bangladesh pledge infantry soldiers

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations on Monday got its first pledges of troops for a proposed peacekeeping force in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, officials said.

At a meeting of 49 potential contributing nations, Norway offered 250 logistics experts, Sweden pledged a battalion of engineers, and Tanzania, Nigeria and Bangladesh volunteered infantry soldiers, officials at the closed-door meeting said.

But the U.N. force, approved by the U.N. Security Council, is still on paper only, with its goal of a 20,000-strong force to be deployed in Darfur.

Sudan has strongly objected to the U.N. taking over from an African Union force currently in the western Sudanese region.

The African Union force of some 7,000 soldiers and monitors has agreed to stay until the end of the year to help stop conflicts in Darfur. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict and up to 2.5 million others displaced as a result of the turmoil.

Meanwhile, the head of humanitarian affairs for the U.N. in Sudan said rogue rebels are behind a spate of recent attacks on aid workers that has left the relief groups with less access to the suffering in Darfur. The assessment from aid chief Manuel Aranda Da Silva came even as 50,000 more people are estimated to have fled their homes. — Xinhua, AP

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