Sudan militias violating ceasefire pact in Darfur – UN, AU
May 16, 2006 (CAIRO) — Armed militias have repeatedly broken a cease-fire in Darfur since a Sudanese peace agreement was signed a week and a half ago, the African Union and the United Nations said Tuesday.
Arab militias known as the Janjaweed on Monday attacked at least two villages in the north of this vast, arid region of western Sudan, the A.U. said. An unidentified armed group launched a separate attack Sunday in southern Darfur, the U.N. said. And refugees staged riots in camps across the region, where at least three people were killed in clashes with police, it said.
Sudan’s government is accused of unleashing the Janjaweed on farming villages of ethnic Africans in a campaign of murder, rape and arson. The conflict has claimed more than 180,000 lives and displaced some 2.5 million people since large-scale violence erupted three years ago.
A May 5 peace agreement signed in Abuja, Nigeria, by the Sudanese government and the main Darfur rebel group called for all parties to abide by a cease-fire within 72 hours.
Renewed violence came as the U.N. and A.U. pushed splinter rebel groups to endorse the peace deal and pushed Khartoum follow through on its pledge to disarm Arab militias.
New raids occurred Monday near the northern Darfur town of Kutum, the A.U. said.
“The information is hard to verify, but it seems the attacks occurred around a village called Korgat,” Abdourahman Ahmed, the A.U.’s chief political officer for Sudan, told The Associated Press by telephone from Khartoum.
He said the A.U., which operates a 7,300-strong peacekeeping force in Darfur, hadn’t yet fully investigated the incidents. Local media reports that several people had been killed couldn’t be independently verified.
A separate raid by an unidentified armed militia occurred Sunday in a village southwest of Gereida in southern Darfur, according to a U.N. statement Tuesday.
Demonstrations and riots have also broken out in some of Darfur’s sprawling refugee camps – killing at least three people, including a Sudanese military intelligence officer, the U.N. said, though there were unverified reports that as many as six people died.
In one protest Saturday, about 1,000 refugees clashed with police in a camp in Kass, near the southern Darfur town of Nyala, the U.N. said.
“The demonstrators were intersected by the Central Reserve Police, which fired at the crowd. As a result, a civilian died,” the U.N, said. Sudanese authorities also arrested an unspecified number of refugees, it said.
Rioters reacted by lynching a Sudanese military officer, it added.
Splinter rebel groups, who have until the end of May to sign the Darfur peace agreement, enjoy widespread support in the refugee camps.
In west Darfur, two vehicles from an international aid organization were ambushed by unidentified men in uniform who robbed the five passengers, including a foreign aid worker, the U.N, also said.
Sudan’s government on Tuesday appealed to international aid agencies to keep sending supplies to Darfur. The country’s vice president said Khartoum would provide some 20,000 tons of food for the U.N. to distribute ahead of the rainy season – which begins in June and lasts about five months – when refugees are most vulnerable to malnutrition.
The call for additional aid came after insufficient international aid forced the World Food Program to reduce food portions for Darfur refugees, Vice President Ali Osman Taha told reporters.
He called on Muslim countries and the international community – as well as Sudan’s own citizens – to send more assistance.
“I equally appeal to the Sudanese people to mobilize their effort to help the people of Darfur,” Taha said, adding that he had instructed all government agencies to cooperate with the U.N. and other organizations distributing aid in the region.
In New York, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution Tuesday that would accelerate planning for a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur.
The unanimous resolution also threatened “strong and effective measures” against any group that obstructs the peace agreement.
(ST/AP)