Rwanda has welcomed the United Nations and African Union’s bid to explore ways of increasing and speeding up the deployment of their Joint Peace-keeping Force in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan.

In a telephone interview with The New Times yesterday, Military Spokesman Maj. Jill Rutaremara said the move would enable the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) become more active.

"We welcome the decision and Rwanda is ready to provide full cooperation in ensuring that UNAMID achieves its goal,” said Rutaremara.

During a meeting held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Monday, UN and AU top officials discussed ways of increasing the logistical support for the peace-keeping forces.

They also agreed to increase the capacity of the mission from 60 percent of the force currently deployed in Darfur to 80 percent by the end of March and full deployment by June this year.

In the Addis meeting, an agreement was signed for airports to be operational 24 hours in order to speed up the deployment and facilitate the joint force’s operations.

According to Rutaremara, four battalions from Rwanda are deployed in Darfur.

"We intend to increase the troops to the required UN standards of each battalion having 800 troops which would make a total of 3200 troops,” said Rutaremara.

Asked when the plan is supposed to be implemented, Rutaremara said that the procedures of deploying the forces are being worked on by the government and the UN.

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