The UN Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution sharply reducing the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Sudan's troubled Darfur region. <br/><br/>The British-drafted resolution will reduce the number of peacekeepers by 44 per cent and international police by about 27 per cent in the Darfur mission. The resolution adopted yesterday.<br/><br/>The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when ethnic Africans in the vast western region rebelled, accusing the Arab-dominated Sudanese government of discrimination. The government in Khartoum was accused of retaliating by arming local nomadic Arab tribes and unleashing them on civilian populations, a charge it denies.<br/><br/>The UN-AU force was established in 2007 with a mandate to help protect civilians in Darfur. A recent review of the force found that over the past three years the conflict in Darfur has markedly changed.