African Union military team to tour Darfur

Oct 13, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — A high-level African Union military team arrived in Khartoum Thursday and proceeded to the war-torn western region of Darfur for a week-long tour following a deadly ambush there, an AU spokesman said.

A member of the AU ceasefire commission questions a group of displaced women in a section of the Abu Shouk displaced camp in the outskirts of El-Fasher, Sudan. (AFP) .

“The aim of the visit is to assess the situation of the AU troops in Darfur and to make recommendations on how to avert recurrence of incidents targeting the AU mission in the future,” Nureddin Mezni told AFP.

Mezni said the team, which is led by Major General Henry Anyidoho, would tour the AU eights sectors throughout Darfur region.

Earlier Thursday, Mezni said the bodies of two Nigerian AU peacekeepers who had gone missing after a deadly ambush last week were found in Darfur.

“They were found dead today, a few metres (yards) away from the site of the ambush in Menawash, in the Khorabashi area.”

The two had been missing since two other Nigerian peacekeepers and two contractors were killed on Saturday. Three other soldiers were wounded and remain in serious condition.

On Wednesday, a spokswoman in Khartoun said the United Nations mission in Sudan has declared much of Darfur unsafe for humanitarian operations.

She cited the upsurge in violence and the brief abduction of nearly 40 other AU personnel by rebel forces as major causes for concern.

Between 180,000 and 300,000 people have died in Darfur since a civil conflict between rebels and government-backed Arab militias erupted in February 2003, with some 2.6 million civilians left homeless.

(AFP/ST)