Gunmen attack Senior African peacekeeper in Darfur

December 16, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — A senior officer with the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur in western Sudan was attacked by gunmen on Sunday who seriously wounded his driver, the mission said.

“Four unidentified armed men attacked the car of the Ghanaian colonel in El-Fasher in North Darfur, wounding his driver and seizing the vehicle,” the spokesman for the 7,000-strong African Union force known as AMIS said.

However the governor of North Darfur, Osman Mohamed Yoused Kibr said police had recovered the stolen vehicle in the attack.

The Joint UN-AU envoy Rodolphe Adada on Sunday met Kibr, to raise the question of security for the UNAMID mission.

Kibr charged the non-signatories rebel groups and “those who are living the camps.”

The Sudanese official used to charge Darfur displaced with issues of insecurity and violence but this is the first time to accuse them of attacks against African peacekeepers.

The North Darfur governor also blamed the African Union, the other international organisations and the INGOs for not immediately notifying the police of the car hijacking, the official SUNA reported.

The Khartoum government has agreed in principle to a 26,000-strong force of United Nations and AU troops for Darfur, made up mainly of African soldiers and known as UNAMID, to replace the AU soldiers who have been unable to put an end to the bloodshed in Darfur.

However Sudan wrangles over its exact make-up and logistics have held up the deployment.

The conflict in Darfur has left at least 200,000 people dead and displaced more than two million, according to UN figures. It erupted in February 2003 when rebels rose up against Khartoum to demand an end to the political and economic marginalisation.

(AFP/ST)