Darfur aid agencies complain of staff arrests

KHARTOUM, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Aid agencies in Sudan’s Darfur region are concerned at systematic arrests and harassment of their staff working in the strife torn region, a U.N. official said on Wednesday.

A sick Sudanese man receives medical attention at a World Doctors health center in Drage camp, on the outskirts of the town of Nyala in southern Darfur. (AFP).

The United Nations had raised the issue with authorities in South Darfur state, one of the most insecure areas in the remote western region, U.N. spokesman George Somerwill told reporters in Khartoum.

“The incidents have been harshest towards local staff,” he said. “It has been particularly bad in South Darfur.”

After years of tribal conflict over scarce resources in arid Darfur, rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing the government of neglect and of arming Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to loot and burn non-Arab villages.

Khartoum admits arming some militias to fight the rebels but denies any links to the Janjaweed, calling them outlaws. The fighting has killed tens of thousands and forced almost 2 million people from their homes.

Somerwill said the United Nations had reports of attacks by armed tribesmen in four villages in South and North Darfur, with heavy casualties inflicted in one attack on Jan. 9 and 10.

The attacks had yet to be confirmed by the African Union, responsible for monitoring a shaky April ceasefire in the region.

He said an assessment last week of the Chadian-Sudanese border towns of Tine and Kornoi found there were no civilians in the area. It was the first assessment since a land mine killed two aid workers in the area last October.

“Most of the civilians and internally displaced people had fled due to continuing insecurity,” he said. He did not give details of the insecurity, but added the nearby town of Al Lait was partially burnt and also empty after recent fighting.

The United States calls the Darfur violence genocide, holding the government and its allied militias responsible. A U.N. commission into whether there is genocide in Darfur is due to report to the U.N. secretary-general by Jan. 25.