Sudan accepts peacekeepers.

last updated 8 January 2015

Khartoum, Sudan

Sudan said this week it would allow U.N. peacekeepers into the war-torn Darfur region. Over the past four years, fighting between government-backed Arab militias and black rebels has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2 million to refugee camps. Last year, Sudan allowed a small force of 7,000 African Union peacekeepers into Darfur, but the under-equipped troops were unable to stop the violence in the vast region, the size of France. Now, Sudan says, it will allow the U.N. to supplement those troops with up to 12,000 U.N. troops, as long as the African Union retains control of operations. Sudan had long said that a U.N. force on its territory would be tantamount to a foreign invasion.