Planned deployment of African Union troops to Darfur delayed

The African Union was to begin deploying 4,000 troops to Darfur over the weekend as part of a force of 4,500 troops to be in place by the end of November to protect refugee camps and aid workers. However, the battalion of Rwandan troops who were to be the lead element of this expanded force (there are already 150 ceasefire monitors and 300 soldiers protecting them in country) has been delayed a week because of logistical problems.

This is where the West needs to lend a hand. As Kofi Annan noted yesterday, thanks to the war in Iraq, "The international community has been reluctant to send another force to Sudan, another Islamic country.... There is this sense among the [Security Council] that it is best to send in African troops." The African Union is making a good-faith effort to assert itself as an African force to solve African problems. The wealthy nations of the world ought to encourage that approach, if not for the moral imperative of stopping genocide in Sudan, then at least for the sake of their own long-term security interests. Chaos, poverty, and ethnic strife give adherents of extremist terrorist ideologies an open door through which to recruit new people to their cause. Ameliorating such conditions is an act of self defense. If we're not willing to use Western forces in Darfur, we ought to at least give the A.U. enough logistical support to use African troops.