Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Eight members of the SA National Defence Force left for Sudan on Wednesday as part of a one-year peace keeping mission in the region, the defence ministry said in Pretoria.

"The main task of the SANDF will be to assist the African Union with initial negotiations between Sudanese government forces and the belligerent groups in order to eventually advance peace in the region," Defence spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi said in a statement.

He said the volunteers included a section commander, deputy section commander, two team leaders, two deputy team leaders, a staff officer operations and a communications/information technology technician.

He said the team left for Addis Ababa on Wednesday from where they would move on to Darfur and specific destinations in the area of operation.

More than 10,000 people were estimated to have died in Darfur and at least 1.2 million had been driven from their homes, many of them to squalid camps in Chad, since a revolt against the Arab-dominated government erupted among indigenous ethnic minorities in February 2003.

In retaliation, the pro-government Arab Janjaweed militias have carried out what UN officials say is a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against black Africans.

The European Union on Monday threatened sanctions against Sudan if it failed to end the crisis.

On Tuesday two US senators introduced legislation that would condemn the crisis in the Darfur region of western Sudan as "genocide."

"The atrocities that are continuing today in Darfur are unconscionable, and this is why the US Congress must take immediate and decisive action," said senator Sam Brownback.

He said that unlike Rwanda, where genocide was determined only after 800,000 died; "here is a chance for the international community to step in and stop the deaths."