SUDAN:Sudan's foreign minister yesterday announced that his government had agreed to the deployment of United Nations helicopter gunships in Darfur as part of a plan to bolster fragile peacekeeping operations in the region.
Lam Akol, himself a former southern rebel, told a news conference in Khartoum that the agreement paved the way for the second phase of a three-step programme which would eventually combine African Union and UN troops in a hybrid mission.
A 7,000-strong AU force has been unable to bring calm to Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed during four years of violence.
The presence of UN soldiers is seen by many campaigners as the only way to stop the bloodshed.
However, the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum has repeatedly managed to drag its feet despite appearing to agree a deal in November.
It has already allowed phase one of the plan, a light support package of equipment, police, civilian staff and advisers, but had stalled at phase two.
The "heavy support package" as it is known called for the deployment of 3,000 UN personnel and equipment - including six attack helicopters.
Yesterday, Mr Akol said: "Sudan has accepted the second phase of the agreement of UN support for the African force." He added that this included the deployment of gunships - previously a sticking point - and agreement over the chain of command.
"We are waiting for the UN to decide the financing of this phase so that we can ask African countries for their troop contributions," he said.
The three-phase plan culminates with the deployment of 17,000 troops and 3,000 police officers.
UN officials in Khartoum said they had not yet been contacted directly about the Sudanese government's change of heart. And Sudan watchers said such agreements had a habit of coming unstuck once the small print was examined.
Sudan analyst with the International Crisis Group in Nairobi Sally Chin said: "If this is an agreement on the heavy support package, then this is a move forward. But past experience has shown than Khartoum is good at agreeing to things only to find excuses to back out later."
More than two million people have been driven from their homes since the Sudanese government unleashed their allies, the Janjaweed militia, on Darfur's farming villages.
Yesterday, Oxfam Ireland launched a fresh appeal to highlight the plight of people living in Darfur and across the border in Chad.
Oxfam Ireland's executive director Brian Scott said: "This is the greatest concentration of human suffering in the world. The international community has allowed the conflict to spread, blighting the lives of some four million people and forcing many to the very brink of survival."