Sudan orders army to find the missing French soldier
March 4, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan on Tuesday ordered its armed forces to step up searches for a French soldier missing in war-torn Darfur for a second day since European Union troops in Chad strayed across the border, sparking deadly clashes.
France appealed to Sudan to help find the French commando, who has been missing for a second day, as the E.U. peacekeeping mission in Chad and French officials voiced growing concern for the man.
Sudanese authorities said they received and welcomed a formal apology from European officials that some peacekeepers in Chad had “accidentally” crossed the remote border and opened fire on Sudanese troops.
“We believe admitting mistakes and apologizing is a step in the right direction and we are ready to cooperate with them in the future,” said Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq.
“EUFOR conveyed to us there was a missing European soldier inside Sudanese territory,” Sadiq said, adding that Sudan had no idea of his whereabouts.
“We have instructed our military units in the area to intensify the search of this area and, in case they find him, to ensure his safety and bring him to Khartoum so we look into ways and means of handing him over,” Sadiq said.
Army spokesman Osman Mohamed al-Agbash said a Sudanese soldier and a civilian were killed in the incident, but Sadiq said there was no question of the missing European facing any disciplinary action in Sudan once found.
There would, however, be an investigation into why the European peacekeepers opened fire on the Sudanese soldiers, he added.
“We have asked the Sudanese authorities to help us find the missing soldier,” who is serving as part of the EUFOR in eastern Chad and the Central African Republic, French Defense Minister Herve Morin said in Paris.
“Naturally, we are worried,” Morin said, adding that Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner had contacted the Sudanese government late on Monday.
EUFOR’s Irish commander Lieutenant General Patrick Nash said the peacekeeping force was committed to respecting Sudanese sovereignty.
He voiced “regret for the inadvertent crossing of the Sudanese border by a single EUFOR Land Rover-type vehicle, which became detached from the main body and unfortunately strayed unintentionally into Sudan.”
EUFOR “carries out its mandate in full respect of the sovereignty of the Sudanese border,” Nash added.
The chief of staff in Paris said the missing soldier was French and that another French soldier found in the vehicle and lightly wounded was evacuated by helicopter to a field hospital in the CAR.
Agbash said: “There was a brief exchange of fire when a vehicle carrying non-African forces entered Sudanese territory and was fired upon. Then three more non-African forces vehicles arrived.
“You can’t do something twice and say it was a mistake.”
Sudan had warned EUFOR it had no mandate to cross the border into Sudan.
Last month, Jean-Marie Guehenno, the head of UN peacekeeping operations, warned that violence between Sudan and Chad fought out by rebel groups on each side threatened to destabilise the region and could lead to a regional war.
The 14-nation EUFOR mission of 3,700 troops to Chad and the CAR deployed last month after a delay caused by a rebel assault on the Chadian capital.
It has a U.N. mandate to protect refugees from western Sudan’s strife-wracked Darfur region as well as people internally displaced by rebel insurgency in Chad and the northern CAR.
(AFP)