Mr. Chair, Canada is proud of our partnership with the African Union. We are helping to build the AU's capacity to develop effective mechanisms to deal with threats to peace and security in Africa. Its role in Darfur, leading international efforts to resolve this crisis, is an example of how our assistance is producing results.
As my esteemed colleague, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, has noted, the key to any long term solution in Darfur and Sudan is sustainable peace. Canada is working closely with the African Union in Abuja, Nigeria, to facilitate the completion of a just and fair peace agreement between the government of Sudan and the Darfur rebel movements.
We are in Abuja providing diplomatic support for the important work of the African Union mediation team led by Ambassador Salim Salim of Tanzania. We are there because we know that Canada has an important role to play in helping to bring peace and stability to the people of Darfur. We are strongly committed to doing our part and have provided financial support for the talks and resource experts to meet the African Union's needs.
We are committed to ensuring that the process for implementing a peace agreement in Darfur is inclusive and respectful of all Darfurian communities. We have promoted the inclusion of good governance, respect for human rights and gender equality as the key components of a sustainable peace agreement.
The long term implementation of such a peace agreement will require a concentrated and sustained international effort to address the ongoing humanitarian situation on the ground. The ceasefire agreement signed by the parties to the conflict in the spring of 2004 is regularly violated. Civilians are often deliberately attacked. Humanitarian agencies are hindered from doing their work and, in some cases, even targeted by combatants.
That is why, in addition to our support to the Abuja process, Canada has tried to address the humanitarian crisis in Darfur through support to the AU peacekeeping operation. Along with the AU's other partners, we are providing the African Union mission in Sudan with essential tools to implement its mandate.
Canada has contributed $170 million, making us the third largest contributor to the African Union mission in Sudan. More specifically, Canada is providing 105 armoured personnel carriers, 25 helicopters and two fixed-wing aircraft and the fuel to run them, to provide essential mobility to widen the scope of protection the African mission in Sudan can offer to civilians in Darfur, and is also providing military and police training and technical and expert support to respond to requests in areas of need as highlighted by the African Union.
At this time I wish to congratulate the Minister of International Cooperation, who has just announced an additional $10 million contribution from Canada in response to the UN's appeal. That is how Canada is responding in its own way to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
The African Union mission in Sudan has been a groundbreaking exercise for the organization. AMIS has accomplished a great deal under difficult circumstances. Nearly 7,700 military and civilian police personnel are currently deployed in Darfur. Canada is pleased to recognize the considerable efforts of the African Union in fielding this complex and challenging peace operation. However, we are now ready to enter a new phase in our collective response to this conflict.
Canada welcomes the African Union's decision to proceed with the transition to the UN mission. The UN is already present in Sudan in a peacekeeping role in the south, supporting the ongoing implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement that ended the civil war. By transitioning the African Union mission in Sudan to the UN, the international community will consolidate its efforts in Sudan in one operation.
In conclusion, Canada is working closely with its international partners to promote a transition to a UN mission while ensuring that the African Union emerges stronger from its Darfur experience and is able to translate the lessons learned from this operation to the future of African Union peace and security engagement in Africa.