African Union denounces attack against AU monitors in Darfur

Nov 15, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The African union slammed an attack by unidentified group against an AU monitor team near the Chadian border. The assailants seized a vehicle and communication radio.

An African Union ceasefire monitor leaves a meeting with SLA rebels in the desert west of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, November 8, 2004. (Reuters).

The African Union Mission in the Sudan (AMIS) has denounced, in a press statement Wednesday, the seizure of one of its service vehicles and a Motorola radio used by one of its Military Observers by two bandits armed with pistols close to the border between Sudan and Chad on 6 November, 2006.

According to a report from AMIS military personnel on the ground,” the bandits ordered a Military Observer out of the vehicle with Registration Number AMIS 946 at gun point and collected the keys and Motorola radio number 749HFC1478, and while firing several shots into the air drove off to the Chad border.”

The AU monitors are unarmed personnel. Their presence in that locality was to “help promote and foster peace and stability, as stipulated in its Mandate”, the AU statement said

since the beginning of the AU mandate in Darfur, many soldiers have been killed. In May last year eleven AU force members were kidnapped by a rebel faction.

(ST)