UN mulls central Africa force as Darfur woes spread

Nov 15, 2006 (SENEIT, Chad/Sudan borderReuters) — The United Nations is considering deploying a protection force on Sudan’s eastern borders with Chad and Central African Republic as hundreds more refugees spill over from its Darfur region.

Violence in Darfur, where tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in political and ethnic conflict since 2003, has spread to the two central African countries, which have both called for the deployment of international peacekeepers.

Women and children camped out on open scrubland near this village on Chad’s border with Sudan, waiting to be transported to refugee camps under armed escort after fleeing the latest attacks which killed more than 50 people, many of them children.

“We are convinced that the deterioration in the situation in Chad and in Central African Republic could require the deployment of a peacekeeping mission,” Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, told BBC radio.

A U.N. delegation is due to travel to both countries next week to evaluate what form any such mission should take.

“Will it be a very light mission with observers, will it be a mission with troops, that is what the evaluation mission will determine,” Guehenno told the BBC’s French service.

Chad declared a state of emergency across vast swathes of the country on Monday to try to halt the insecurity across its border region with Sudan, where the government accuses Sudanese Arab militia of frequent raids into Chadian territory.

Central African Republic accuses Sudan of arming rebels who say they have captured two northeastern towns and are demanding power-sharing talks with President Bozize, whom they accuse of ruling the country like a personal fiefdom.

CHILDREN SHOT DEAD

Hundreds of Sudanese families have crossed into Chad in the past few weeks after simultaneous militia attacks on villages in Darfur. Several hundred more people were still trying to cross, those who had reached Chad said.

One young girl, Kiro, aged 7, described to Reuters how Janjaweed fighters — members of a Sudanese Arab militia — came into her village. She, her 4-year old sister, two other children and their mother hid behind a tree.

The Janjaweed saw them and opened fire in broad daylight.

Only Kiro survived.

African Union chairman Denis Sassou Nguesso, president of Congo Republic, on Tuesday joined demands for a U.N. force to protect civilians in Chad and Central Africa, saying the spillover from Darfur was a threat to the whole region.

The United Nations hopes to strengthen a 7,000-member African Union force already in Darfur with hundreds of peacekeepers, boosting logistics and communications and eventually forming a hybrid force under joint command.

But Sudan’s government has rejected this, insisting the AU remain in charge of peacekeeping in Darfur.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will participate in talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Thursday to discuss Darfur. Officials from the U.N. Security Council members Russia, Britain, France, China and the United States will also attend.

(Reuters)