Thursday, June 09, 2005

Good News on Darfur

For months--years, even--the indifference of the United States and Europe to the genocide in Darfur has been disheartening, to put it mildly. At last there is a bit of good news to report.

At a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels earlier today, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer announced that NATO would assist the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur by airlifting additional troops and assisting in their training. The African Union, which hopes to increase the size of its peacekeeping force in the region to 7,500, made the request for logistical assistance back on April 26.

According to the Guardian, the United States will airlift troops from Rwanda to Darfur while France will airlift troops from Senegal.