|PIC1|The Sudanese government has declared Monday that it will allow African Union peacekeepers to remain in war-ravaged Darfur, on the condition that the troops are not part of the proposed United Nations force.

The announcement comes as a clear act of defiance against the United Nations’ efforts to broker peace in the region.

On Sunday, fears arose that western Sudan could descend into full-scale warfare after the Council of Ministers requested that the African Union withdraw its 7,000 soldier force from Darfur when its mandate expires on 30 September. Sudanese President Omar Bashir told that his government would take over the security issues across the nation.

However, a change of heart was seen on Monday when the presidential advisor, Mustafa Osman Ismail reported that the AU would have to leave the country only if it could not maintain its existing force.

Ismail said, “The AU has refused to extend its mandate beyond September 30. If they don't want to extend their mandate, they have to go.”

However, latest developments have indicated that the African Union (AU) has reaffirmed its intention to leave Sudan's Darfur region by the end of September when its truce monitors' mandate expires.

|TOP|The AU wants the UN to take over the mission, but Khartoum rejects this.

More than 200,000 have been killed during the three-year conflict in Darfur, with an additional 2 million displaced, resulting in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.

The Sudanese government has repeatedly angered the international community by rejecting each attempt by the UN to establish a UN peacekeeping force in the region.

Since the signing of the May Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) between the Sudanese government and one of the three main rebel groups, fighting has actually escalated between signatories and rebel groups that refused to sign the peace deal.

|AD|AU troops were expected to fill the gap before the arrival of the UN peacekeepers and ultimately be absorbed into the UN operation under last week's Security Council resolution.

However, the deployment of the UN force of 17,500 troops and 3,300 civilian police is contingent on consent from the government of Sudan. The government has so far rejected all calls for a UN force in Darfur.

Bashir on Saturday reiterated Sudan's rejection of international troops in Darfur and stressed that the country was ready and willing to confront any UN force deployed to the area. He said sending an international force to Darfur was "colonisation in new disguise".

However, a senior humanitarian worker in Darfur has issued the warning this week that a withdrawal of the AU force would have catastrophic humanitarian consequences and could lead to mass displacement. Without the AU, he told that access to the affected population would further deteriorate.

Rather than accept a UN force, the Sudanese government has proposed its own protection plan, which involves deploying another 10,500 troops to "consolidate the security situation" in Darfur.