Editor,

While it is pleasing that the Chairman of the AU Commission, Jean Ping has condemned the deaths of five Rwandan peacekeeping troops, who died in two different ambushes in North Darfur, I’m not sure that the organization that he leads is doing all it can to avoid future tragic deaths.

I’m personally flummoxed by the mere fact that, after all these years, peacekeepers are still needed in Darfur. What is Sudan doing to make the peacekeepers jobs easier and, eventually, obsolete? I would have assumed that things would have gotten better after all these years, but it certainly hasn’t, if the returning caskets are anything to go by.

Its amazing just how feeble the international system is. I remember a few years back, former US president George Bush Jr pronounced that what was happening in Darfur was genocide. Whatever happened?

The news cycle changed-along came Obama-mania, Iranian nukes and now global warming and Copenhagen.

I think that more AU pressure must be exerted on the Sudanese leadership to protect their people…and our troops.

Our troops should only be put in harms way if the Sudanese government is doing all it can to control its territory. Is the AU assured of their good faith?

Sam Rwego
Kimihurura