UNITED NATIONS, Sept 14: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday issued a dire warning on Sudan. “Darfur is headed for a disaster unless the Sudanese government changes its mind and allows a force of United Nations peacekeepers to take over from the existing African Union (AU) operation in the strife-torn region,” he said.
Saying that the situation in Darfur has become desperate, Mr Annan told a press conference that the world faced a ‘big challenge’ to ensure that there was not a repeat of the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
“If the African Union forces were to leave, and we are not able to put in a UN follow-on force, we are heading for a disaster, and I don’t think we can allow that to happen, particularly since we only recently passed the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ resolution,” he said.
At the world summit last year, member states agreed there is a collective international obligation to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
