The African Union can quickly mobilize up to 5,000 troops to help end the looting and killing in western Sudan, but it needs hundreds of millions of dollars to deploy the force and so far it’s received just $20 million, says Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

“The troops are ready,” said Obasanjo, the current president of the 53-nation regional bloc. “The first pledge which we got was from Canada,” which contributed $20 million Wednesday, but the vastly expanded force now needed “hundreds of millions.” In an interview in his hotel suite on Wednesday night, Obasanjo expressed hope that the United States will be more generous in helping Sudan’s conflict-wracked Darfur region than it was in last year’s Liberia crisis when it offered $200 million to help stabilize and rebuild the country. Full Story