By Opheera McDoom KHARTOUM, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Ethiopia on Thursday pledged 5,000 troops to a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region. The 26,000-strong joint mission is to replace a hard-pressed AU force that lacks experience, equipment and cash and has been unable to stop the conflict that has caused a humanitarian crisis in which some 200,000 people are estimated to have died. "Ethiopia is ready, the troops are equipped, and we are waiting for a request from the AU and the United Nations to disperse the troops to Darfur," Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told a news conference in Addis Ababa with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A Nigerian army team meanwhile arrived in Darfur to repatriate the bodies of seven Nigerian soldiers who were killed in the worst attack on African Union peacekeepers last Saturday. The bodies of three other dead from Mali, Botswana and Senegal were also to be flown back to their countries. "A high-level military delegation from Nigeria is now in el-Fasher and they will take the bodies of their killed soldiers straight from el-Fasher to Abuja," said AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni. El-Fasher is Darfur's historical capital and the headquarters of the AU force. The conditions of seven other soldiers seriously injured in the attack have stabilised after being evacuated to a Khartoum hospital. The attack by suspected rebel factions destroyed the AU base in Haskanita, southeast Darfur. The mosque was burned and vehicles and weapons looted. Initially almost 60 troops went missing, but Mezni said all but one had now been located. New AU force commander Martin Luther Agwai said he had almost completed a plan to improve direct control over outlying AU sites to offer them better protection. He said on Tuesday the 7,000-strong AU force was "outgunned and outnumbered" by many of the parties in the Darfur conflict. He urged Western nations to pledge troops and equipment quickly to the joint U.N.-AU mission due to take over from the AU on Jan. 1. Many AU officials investigating the Haskanita attack have pointed the finger at two breakaway rebel factions which have troops in the area. Their leaders condemned the attack and have denied involvement. U.N. Sudan envoy Jan Eliasson told Reuters in Stockholm it was unclear who was behind the attack. "There are some sources claiming this is renegade or small factions of a group not acting in the spirit of the leadership," he said. "We have noted that important leaders of the different rebel movements have condemned this terrible act and by that committed themselves to the talks and the process of finding a political solution." The AU infantry is mostly from Nigeria, Senegal and Rwanda with a smaller South African contingent. International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died in Darfur, with 2.5 million driven from their homes sparking the world's largest humanitarian operation. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for a junior government minister and allied militia leader accused of colluding in war crimes in Darfur. Khartoum refuses to hand them over. (additional reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa and Peter Apps in Stockholm)
