FASHER, Sudan, December 31, SPA--A joint United Nations-African Union (AU) force took charge of peacekeeping in Darfur on Monday, seeking to end almost five years of fighting in the western Sudanese region, DPA reported. The force replaces a struggling AU mission. The plan is for it ultimately to comprise 20,000 soldiers and 6,000 police, but numbers are currently only about a third of those levels. AU troops swapped their green headgear for U.N. blue berets to mark the handover at a ceremony held in front of a big crowd and amid tight security at a base in El-Fasher in the north of the region. However, the change was unlikely to bring much immediate change for the residents of Darfur. The joint force was approved by the U.N. Security Council on July, 31, but its deployment has proved problematic.
