Bush Warned He Might Send troops to Darfur: Wade

Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade told Reuters last week that Bush warned him at an undisclosed time that he would consider sending American troops to Darfur if African leaders could not quell the genocide themselves. Wade added "Myself and other African colleagues tried to dissuade him from this and to convince him to leave us to try to sort out this problem among us Africans."

A joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force comprised mostly of Africans currently patrols Darfur. However, many experts have complained that force is ineffective due to an inability to deploy the desired number of troops, underfunding from the UN, and a lack of helicopters to provide aerial support. An attack by Janjaweed militiamen that left 7 peacekeepers dead and 22 wounded two weeks ago supports this assertion. Responding to Wade, White House spokesman Gordon Johnrode neither denies nor supports the claim saying "The president is committed to supporting the AU-UN peacekeeping force."