A Canadian gift, meant to help protect African peacekeepers and civilians in the troubled Darfur region, is being held up by the Sudanese government and not allowed into the country.

The gift is 105 Grizzly armoured personnel carriers [APCs], which Canada donated to the African Union to help its soldiers keep the peace in Sudan.

But the peacekeepers are in Sudan – and for more than three months the APCs have been stuck in Senegal.

Grizzly armoured personnel carrier.

"It's regrettable we couldn't have gotten them in earlier," said Defence Minister Bill Graham, speaking in Vancouver. "I would have preferred that obviously and so would the African Union."

For months 67 Canadian soldiers worked in Senegal teaching African troops how to use the vehicles, which are considered a boon to overworked and poorly-equipped African troops.

But the APCs are hostage to a hostile Sudanese government reluctant to give those AU peacekeepers any help.

African troops receive instruction.

Graham says there's nothing he can do. "We provided the APCs to the African Union. We moved them to Africa and they have been waiting for the African Union's ability to deal with the Sudanese government and get them into the country."

The African Union is presiding over a shaky ceasefire between rebels in Darfur and the Janjaweed, government supported militiamen. The Janjaweed are accused of conducting a kind of ethnic cleansing that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced two million people from their homes.

Officially the Sudanese government has approved the arrival of the Canadian Grizzly APCs, but it hasn't followed through by actually allowing them into the country where peacekeepers can use their armour and machine-guns to protect civilians and themselves.