No U.N. troops

last updated 8 January 2015

Darfur, Sudan

U.N. diplomats failed this week to persuade the African Union to replace its ineffective force in Darfur with a large U.N. peacekeeping contingent. Darfur is the scene of a heartbreaking refugee crisis, with some 2 million mostly black villagers being uprooted by ethnic Arab militias. Aid agencies have little access to those in need because the African Union troops have been unable to enforce a cease-fire. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton wanted the Security Council to put real pressure on the Africans by passing a resolution for an immediate U.N. deployment. “But no other country, including the United Kingdom and France, was with us on that,” Bolton said. “We think that’s too bad.”