NIGERIA: BRITISH WOES WITH DARFUR DEPLOYMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 001396 SIPDIS STATE FOR AF AND PM/RSAT E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/16/2014 TAGS: PREL MOPS SU NI DARFUR SUBJECT: NIGERIA: BRITISH WOES WITH DARFUR DEPLOYMENT REF: ABUJA 1382 Classified By: AMBASSADOR JOHN CAMPBELL FOR REASONS 1.5 b AND d. ¶1. (C) The British High Commission told us August 16 that they are having considerable difficulty bringing the GON to action on transporting the Nigerian force protection unit to Darfur. Since the handoff to the UK (reftel),the British High Commissioner has met with President Obasanjo, the Nigerian Chief of Defense Staff and others, and they tell him the GON is ready to work with the UK to get the Nigerians to Darfur. The British DATT arranging the transport has met with a variety of Nigerian MOD officials, but none of them are trying to operationalize that transport, and at least some occasionally tell the British DATT that the Nigerians will use their own C-130s to get to Darfur. ¶2. (C) COMMENT: Neither the British nor we believe Nigeria's C-130s can transport the company-size unit to Darfur, or even provide full resupply of the unit once there. The British believe the problem is getting the word from Obasanjo down to Nigerian officials at a level where the transport can be operationalized. We would add that the British DATT unit here is only two Attaches, one of whom is not at post, and they have not been through this with the Nigerians before as we have in the LIBERIA deployment. We are providing all the help we can in giving the British the information we had gathered for moving the Nigerians to Darfur, and contacts among the Nigerians to get the job done. ¶3. (U) Minimize considered. CAMPBELL