On December 31, 2007, a United Nations peacekeeping force officially aligned with an inadequate African Union peacekeeping force in Sudan to form the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission (UNAMID). It is intended to address the problems of continued Arab-African conflict and instability in war-torn Sudan.

The operation was authorized by Security Council resolution 1769 on 31 July, 2007, with an approved budget of US$1.28 billion to June 30, 2008. Forty-four nations are to contribute military personnel and thirty-five nations will contribute to a police presence. About 18,000 of the anticipated 26,000 strong contingent had arrived by January 31 of this year.

The aim of the mission is to end the four-year long crisis which has been pitting government forces and government-equipped militias against rebel forces in Southern Sudan. The conflict in Western Sudan has resulted in the deaths of some 200,000 civilians and in the destruction of villages leaving 2.5 million people homeless. The area in question is roughly the size of France.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, the Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping, has stated that the
government force is ineffective despite its declared cooperation with the mission, calling the Sudanese government obstructionist for stalling on land allocation agreement for bases and for unwarranted delays in signing the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) because they include non-African personnel. Khartoum has indicated that it wants an all-Asian force.

All the uncertainty and foot-dragging by the Sudanese government has led to delays in bringing much needed air and ground support for the mission in the form of helicopters and transportation units from the major contributing nations. Repeated appeals for this all-important logistical support have had no effect to date.

Sudanese forces support the Janjaweed militia which was recently involved in an attack on three towns in the area resulting in the deaths of 200 people. The attack reportedly included air strikes by the government. Government forces have shot at and fired rocket grenades at a UN convoy. This was confirmed by a local commander of the Sudanese government forces. The Sudanese ambassador to the UN, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, denied these incidents in a rhetorical statement.

Problems in Darfur are exacerbated by recent clashes in neighboring Chad. The conflict has crossed the border. On January 8, 2008, Jan Eliasson, UN Special Envoy

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