Sudan will double the number of police in its western Darfur province to 20,000, adding to the 40,000 troops already in the region, the Sudanese foreign minister said on Tuesday.
Mustafa Osman Ismail, speaking to the media after a meeting with the African Union chairman, Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo, also said any African Union (AU) troops sent to Darfur would be to build confidence and encourage refugees to return home.
"The government of Sudan has about 40,000 Arab soldiers in Darfur plus 10,000 police so the AU, whatever number is going to come, they are going to be for building confidence to encourage people to go to their homes," Ismail said.
"We are going to increase the number of police to maybe 20,000 police in Darfur." Sudan is trying to stave off threatened United Nations sanctions by increasing security in Darfur, a vast desert region housing the refugees who say they fled after attacks by Arab militia backed by government troops.
The United Nations said in a report released last week that Sudanese police sexually abused and exploited refugee women in the Abu Shouk camp near el-Fasher in Darfur.