Written question asked by Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Triesman (Labour) on Tuesday, 8 November 2005.

Sudan: African Union Mission

Question: What information they have received about the reasons for the delay in reaching the authorised level of 7,731 soldiers and police for the African Union Mission in Sudan; and whether a force of this size is large enough to prevent further harm to civilians.

Answer: The African Union (AU) has now deployed around 5,500 military and civilian personnel, and 1,000 civilian police, as part of the AU Mission in Sudan’s (AMIS) current expansion to more than 7,700 personnel. It is likely that South Africa will now be unable to provide a military battalion, and it has proven difficult to generate appropriately qualified civilian police. There was a three-week delay in deployment in September for infrastructure improvements to be made, and due to Sudan-wide fuel shortages.We expect there to be a further mission to assess AMIS in the near future. This mission should examine the effectiveness of the expanded AMIS and present recommendations for the future, including whether any further expansion is required.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 675 c71WA; 1988
Session: 2005-06
Subjects: Armed forces Deployment Civilians Protection Police Peacekeeping operations Sudan African Union
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk