STUTTGART, Germany — A pair of Air Force C-17s will soon be delivering equipment in support of an international peacekeeping mission in Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of people have died in recent years as a result of ethnic conflict.
On Monday, President George W. Bush authorized the airlift effort, which will be coordinated by the newly formed U.S. Africa Command and the State Department.
The airlift will be AFRICOM’s first high-profile operation since it stood up in October as the military’s sixth unified command.
"We’re moving Rwandan peacekeeping equipment to Darfur," said spokesman Vince Crawley from AFRICOM headquarters in Stuttgart.
Some 75 tons of heavy equipment will be transported from Rwanda to Darfur in the coming weeks, Crawley said. The C-17s will be landing at a secured airfield, said Crawley, adding that U.S. troops will be on the ground only to unload the equipment. The location from where the planes will depart is yet to be determined.
The logistical support is aimed at helping a joint 26,000-strong African Union-U.N. peacekeeping force, which has struggled with a lack of transport capacity.
Bush’s decision to send military aircraft to Darfur comes just two weeks before he leaves office. President-elect Barack Obama, during the campaign, said the U.S. should be providing more logistical support to the peacekeeping efforts in Sudan’s ravaged western region. Obama also has said the U.S. should consider helping to enforce a no-fly zone.
In addition to the AFRICOM component, the State Department will be managing its own operation.
"We’re one piece of a much larger effort," Crawley said. "The bulk of what was authorized was a State Department-contracted airlift."
The State Department will be responsible for moving 240 containers of heavy equipment into Darfur from the Port of Sudan.
The Air Force C-17s, meanwhile, will be making multiple trips from Rwanda to Darfur to deliver the equipment destined for peacekeepers.
"The timing right now is pretty gray. It will be sometime in the next two or three weeks," Crawley said.
