UNITED NATIONS, April 4 (AP): The U.N. Security Council on Thursday approved a resolution aimed at improving its peacekeeping mission in Darfur as violence surges and hundreds of thousands flee. The joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in the troubled western Sudan region has the second-highest budget of all U.N. peacekeeping forces, at more than $1.3 billion a year, but it has been criticized for underperformance.
“It has the largest gap between the resources that are put into the mission and the effect it has had on the ground,” Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, told reporters. “What we’re trying to do with this resolution is give it the best chance of success and the best chance of protecting civilians in the region.”
Darfur has been chaotic since 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum, accusing it of discrimination and neglect. The U.N. has said an increase in violence this year among multiple armed groups has displaced almost 200,000 people.
