Africa Command to Airlift Peacekeeper Equipment to Darfur

WASHINGTON --- U.S. Africa Command is laying plans to airlift heavy equipment to Sudan to support African Union and U.N. peacekeepers involved in the countrys Darfur region, an Africom spokesman told American Forces Press Service today.>> Africom will transport about 75 tons of heavy equipment -- water tankers, fuel tank trucks, forklifts and other oversized cargo from Kigali, Rwanda, to Darfur aboard two C-17 Globemaster III aircraft, Vince Crawley said.>> President George W. Bush announced the decision yesterday after meeting at the White House with Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir, a former south Sudanese rebel leader.>> I have provided a waiver to the State Department so they can begin to move 240 containers worth of heavy equipment into Darfur, and that the Defense Department will be flying Rwandan equipment into Darfur to help facilitate the peacekeeping missions there," Bush said.>> Bush sent a Jan. 1 memo to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice authorizing the airlift mission without reimbursement from the United Nations. He called the mission important to the security interests of the United States.>> The president also waived the standard 15-day congressional notification requirements to allow the State Department-led airlift assistance to proceed immediately, because failing to do so would pose a substantial risk to human health and welfare, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley said in a statement released yesterday.>> Hadley said the mission will help African Union and U.N. peacekeepers protect civilian lives and improve the safe and effective delivery of lifesaving humanitarian aid to areas of western Darfur currently inaccessible due to security concerns.