ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) – Six African countries have given written pledges to contribute more than 12,000 troops to an African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force in Sudan’s Darfur, a senior African Union official said Monday.

Pledges received from Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Malawi and Senegal amount to 12,800 troops, said Mahmoud Kane, head of the African Union’s Darfur Integrated Task Force.

“We believe it is a positive response from Africa,” said Mr. Kane.

Tanzania, Cameroon and Uganda, also pledged troops but they did not indicate exactly how many soldiers they planned to contribute, Mr. Kane said.

Mr. Kane said that the six countries will also provide support services for their troops, including mechanics and medical staff. Ethiopia has also said it can provide a field hospital with 60 staff members, Mr. Kane said.

African countries had given enough pledges to make up the joint U.N.-African Union operation of 20,000 peacekeepers and 6,000 civilian police for Darfur that the U.N. Security Council authorized on July 31, African Union Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said Sunday.

The Sudanese government is adamantly opposed to non-Africans playing any major role in the hybrid U.N.-African Union operation.

Some 7,000 African peacekeepers from Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa are serving in Darfur.

Nearly four years of fighting between African rebel forces and the Khartoum government and allied militias in the western Sudanese region has forced more than 2.5 million from their homes and resulted in the death of at least 200,000 people.