Ex-Darfur rebels clash with African peacekeepers
May 31, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Former rebels who signed a peace deal with the Sudanese government clashed with African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, capturing 13 A.U. vehicles and wounding three soldiers after one of their fighters was killed, the A.U. and the U.N. in Sudan said Thursday.
The incident underscores the precarious situation in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million chased from their homes since 2003, when regional rebels took up arms against the central government.
The African Union mission said one of its patrols had a “road accident” with a convoy of former rebels from the Sudan Liberation Movement near Labado in South Darfur Wednesday.
The road accident led to the death of one former rebel and the wounding of nine, four of whom were in critical condition, the A.U. said.
The A.U. said the former rebels then opened fire on the peacekeepers and disarmed them.
“Combatants reacted violently to the accident by stopping AU convoys (and) demanding the surrender” of armored personnel carriers and troops, the A.U. said. Three A.U. peacekeepers were wounded in the shooting, the A.U. added.
The A.U. statement said the African peacekeepers did not return fire or defend themselves to avoid civilian casualties. The U.N. in Sudan reported that 13 A.U. vehicles were captured by the SLM, along with weapons and the peacekeepers’ personal belongings.
Some Sudanese media claimed the A.U. had opened fire on the SLM during the incident, but the African Union denied this. SLM leaders were not immediately available for comment.
The A.U. expressed in a statement its “heartfelt condolences” for the killed SLM member. It said it had medically evacuated the wounded fighters to Khartoum on an A.U. aircraft and was working to contain the incident.
The SLM fighters belong to a faction headed by Minni Minawi, the only rebel leader who signed the Darfur Peace Agreement in May 2005 with the Sudanese government. Now a high ranking official in Khartoum, Minawi has lost much of his following in Darfur and his troops have begun heavy infighting with other rebel factions holding out against the government.
Nineteen of the 7,000 A.U. troops in Darfur have been killed since the mission began in 2004. They have faced growing hostility from rebel factions and some of the refugees, who say they don’t do enough to protect them.
Khartoum has rejected a U.N. Security Council plan for 22,000 U.N. peacekeepers to replace the struggling A.U. force. In April, however, it agreed to a compromise deal for 3,000 blue helmets to reinforce the A.U. as part of a “hybrid force” that could ultimately reach 23,000 peacekeepers.
(AP)