A contingent of 50 Nigerian soldiers has arrived in Darfur as the first batch of 3,000 extra African Union (AU) troops deployed to monitor a shaky ceasefire in Sudan's western region.
The reinforcements will bolster a force of 300 AU soldiers protecting 150 observers already in the vast desert region where 1.5 million civilians have been driven from their homes by violence.
Nigeria expects to deploy another 350 troops over the next few weeks, bringing its total deployment to a battalion of 550. Rwanda and other AU members are expected to lift the total strength to about 3,000.
Human rights groups have called on the 53-member African Union to use the soldiers to protect civilians who have taken refuge in makeshift camps dotted along the Sudanese border with Chad, in fear of attacks by mounted Arab militia known as the Janjaweed who have driven them from their homes.
But the AU has given them a specific mandate to protect ceasefire monitors and safeguard civilians only if they are under imminent threat.
The United Nations says Darfur is one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, which has killed around 70,000 people through disease and malnutrition since March. There are no reliable figures for how many people have died due to fighting.
The Sudanese government has reluctantly agreed to the foreign troop presence under threat of possible oil sanctions from the United Nations. It suspects the West of siding with the rebels in the 20-month-old conflict.
AU-sponsored peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebels in Abuja entered their fourth day today as the government became increasingly frustrated with what it saw as stalling tactics by the rebels.
Rebels have refused to sign a humanitarian accord to allow more aid to refugees, insisting that it be signed together with a security pact that would disarm the Janjaweed.