Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has called on Muslim communities around Sudan’s Darfur region to wage a ‘holy war’ (jihad) against a proposed peacekeeping force in the region.

The audio message which appeared on jihadi websites on Tuesday was accompanied by a still picture and excerpts aired by pan-Arab satellite news channel al-Jazeera on Monday.

However, Rwanda, whose troops are part of the peacekeeping force, wondered why anybody, including Al-Qaeda, would target a "neutral peacekeeping force.”

On Wednesday, Rwanda started airlifting her 800 members of the hybrid AU-UN force in Darfur, in addition to another estimated 2,000 Rwandan peacekeepers currently forming part of the outgoing AU mission in the troubled region.

"The force is not taking sides, and we have the consent of the UN, AU and the Government of Sudan.

The mission is only there to help bring about peace in the region,” Military Spokesman Maj. Jill Rutaremara said yesterday.

He added: "Terrorists would only target innocent people because that is what terrorism is all about.”

And asked whether the terrorism call would affect the mission, Rutaremara said: "If anything it calls for more vigilance to deal with both the primary responsibility (of the mission) and such additional threats.”

Bin Laden called on those living in the areas surrounding Darfur, particularly the Arabian Peninsula, to drive out any foreign forces in the region.

"It is the duty of the people of Islam in the Sudan and its environs, especially the Arabian Peninsula, to perform jihad against the crusader invaders and wage armed rebellion to remove those who let them in,” he said, according to a transcript provided by IntelCentre, which monitors jihadi websites. 

Bin Laden’s deputy, Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawhiri, made a similar call for jihad in Darfur in a September 20 video message.

In Tuesday’s message, Bin Laden referred to talks between Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir and Saudi officials to pressure Bashir to agree to a joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur.

Those meetings took place in March and April of this year.

Sudanese government agreed to the deployment hybrid UN-AU peacekeepers, and the new mission (UNAMID) is set to take over from the ill-equipped AMIS (AU Mission in Sudan) in January, 2008.  Rwanda’s 800 troops that started to be flown to Darfur by the US Air Force this week are among the first arrivals for the 26,000-strong joint AU-UN force.   Former RDF Fourth RDF Division (Southern Province) Commander Maj. Gen. Karenzi Karake, who is already in Darfur, will deputise the force Commander Nigerian General Nigeria’s General Martin Luther Agwai.

The Darfur conflict, pitting numerous rebel groups against government soldiers backed by Janjaweed militias has left an estimated 200,000 people dead and another 2.5 million homeless since 2003.

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