UN announces 30 percent cut in Darfur peacekeepers

The number of troops and police serving in the joint African Union-UN mission in Darfur - known as UNAMID - will be reduced by at least 30 percent, the UN Security Council announced on Thursday.

Deployed in 2007, UNAMID has about 16,000 blue helmets on the ground who are tasked with protecting civilians in the war between Sudanese government forces and ethnic minority rebel groups that erupted in 2003.

The council agreed to a gradual reduction of UNAMID peacekeepers to be carried out in two phases of six months.

The smaller UNAMID will be redeployed to the thickly forested region of Jebel Marra, where most of the recent violence has been reported.

Sudan said it "welcomes the cut in UNAMID mission," a foreign ministry statement said, suggesting the move "confirms that Darfur is now a closed chapter and that the region has returned to peace."

"The ministry will help in step by step withdrawal of the peacekeeping forces," the statement added.

The move comes as the UN General Assembly voted to cut 600 million US dollars from the organisation's 7.8 billion US dollars peacekeeping budget. 

The United Nations says at least 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in Darfur since the conflict erupted in 2003.

The fighting began when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against Khartoum's Arab-dominated government, accusing it of marginalising the region.

In recent months Sudanese officials have claimed that the conflict in Darfur has ended, but reports of fighting between government forces and rebels continue to emerge.