UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations is intensively lobbying countries to provide helicopters for a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, one of many obstacles to starting the mission effectively on Jan. 1.
Officials and diplomats say no country has made a credible offer to provide the 24 transport and attack helicopters needed for the 26,000-strong force, whose mission is already clouded by lack of full commitment by the Sudanese government.
The force is due to replace a hard-pressed AU operation, known as AMIS, which lacks experience, equipment and cash and has been unable to stop the 4 1/2-year long conflict.
"No national army would deploy anywhere without any air power," one U.N. diplomat said. "The AMIS force there now has no helicopters, which is ... why it can't defend itself."
At least 10 AU troops were killed last month in an assault on their base in Darfur -- Sudan's arid western region the size of France where international experts estimate 200,000 have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes.
A Security Council resolution in July called on member states to finalize contributions to UNAMID, the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, by the end of August.
With no helicopters secured six weeks after that, Britain wants the U.N. Security Council to issue a statement this week urging member states "to urgently make available the aviation and ground transport units still required."
"The situation we really, really have to avoid is one where the force commander will have not much more at his disposal than he has now," a U.N. official said.
Sources say among countries the United Nations is lobbying for air assets or to put pressure on Khartoum to cooperate with the force are Egypt, Pakistan, Ukraine, South Africa, South Korea and China, which is Sudan's most powerful close ally.
