SUDAN: Humanitarian agencies and United Nations officials lined up yesterday to warn that international peacekeepers were the only way to prevent Darfur's massive humanitarian emergency spiralling out of control.
A cash-strapped African Union (AU) force, which has struggled to protect civilians and humanitarian workers, is due to leave the region at the end of the month.
And in the past days, the Khartoum government has told the AU it can only remain if it agrees to stay outside United Nations control.
Instead, Khartoum wants to send 10,000 of its own troops - an idea that horrifies human rights campaigners.
Kofi Annan, secretary general of the UN, warned that Sudan would not be able to address a humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur where hundreds of thousands of people have died and more than 2.5 million have been displaced during the past three years.
"The international community has been feeding about three million people in camps and if we have to leave because of lack of security, lack of access to the people then what happens? The government will have to assume responsibility for doing this and if it doesn't succeed, it will have lots of questions to answer before the rest of the world," he said during a trip to Egypt.
On Monday, Sudan gave African Union troops a one-week ultimatum to accept a deal that would block the proposed UN peacekeeping force in Darfur or leave the region, a step that would likely exacerbate the world's worst humanitarian disaster.
The removal of the 7,000 AU peacekeepers in Darfur would raise the prospect of an upsurge in fighting, where more than 200,000 have been killed since 2003.
Khartoum has already launched a major offensive in Darfur, involving thousands of troops and militias backed by helicopter gunships.
The AU force, which is underfunded and under-staffed, has failed to prevent an upsurge of violence in recent months. The UN wants to deploy a larger force of 20,000 troops with a stronger mandate to stop the fighting.
The most recent diplomatic crisis arose because the African peacekeepers' mandate runs out on September 30th, and last week, the Security Council passed a resolution that would put the AU force under the UN's authority, pending Khartoum's consent.
Sudan promptly rejected that plan.
Irish aid agencies said Sudan's rejection of an international presence would make their job impossible.
Noel Moloney, East Africa representative of Trócaire, said: "The worst thing they can be doing is asking the AU troops to leave without any mechanism in place to protect people.
"We know from three years ago that the Sudan army did not protect people, and in fact, worked with the Janjaweed. For human rights and justice, it is a terrible decision."
John O'Shea, chief executive of Goal, urged the Irish Government to push the US and UK towards deploying troops.
"We believe Britain and or the US should go it alone, and put the lives of the most vulnerable before anything else," he said.
"The Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has been to Darfur. He realises how serious the situation is, and it is vital that he now plays a role in bringing this carnage to an end."
The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum government. The government is accused of unleashing Arab militiamen known as Janjaweed who have been blamed for widespread atrocities.