Violence flares anew in Darfur
Dec 10, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Twenty-two civilians were killed in a weekend attack in western Sudan which the government blamed on Darfur rebels and which threatened to deepen the crisis in the war-torn region.
The latest violence erupted as US envoy in Sudan Andrew Natsios stepped up efforts to persuade Khartoum to accept a joint African Union-UN peacekeeping force for Darfur.
African Union spokesman Nureddin Mezni said 22 civilians were killed and 10 wounded on Saturday when gunmen ambushed a vehicle in Sirba, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state.
Mezni did not identify the attackers but said an investigation would be launched into the attack.
The governor of West Darfur said the attack was carried out by rebel groups who refused to sign the May peace agreement reached between Khartoum and the main faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement.
“The raid was perpetrated by the rebels from the National Redemption Front, who are committed to a military escalation,” interim governor Mohammed Yusef al-Tulib was quoted as saying by the state-run SUNA news agency.
He also provided a lower casualty toll of 15 dead and 14 wounded, saying the attack targeted a bus carrying 34 civilians near the border with Chad.
Eight AU observers, who were sent to investigate the incident, and their helicopter crew were held for 24 hours by an angry crowd near Sirba, the African body said.
Local residents insisted the AU team take pictures of the bodies and prevented them from flying out. The observers were eventually released unharmed on Sunday.
“Our team was freed,” Mezni told AFP.
The incident comes as the fragile alliance between Khartoum and the dominant faction of the SLM was closer than ever to breaking point.
According to the United Nations, at least 200,000 people have died from the combined effects of war and famine since the fighting erupted in February 2003. Some sources put the toll much higher.
The African Union, whose 7,000 military observers in Darfur have struggled to contain the nearly four-year-old violence, said two civilians were killed on Saturday in El-Fasher, the largest town in Darfur.
The latest incident in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state and the main base for AU troops, came a week after five people were killed in fighting between SLM former rebels and pro-government forces.
SLM chief Minni Minnawi threatened to quit the government over what he said were repeated attacks by the Janjaweed militia abetted by the regime of President Omar al-Beshir.
The UN Security Council in August adopted a resolution calling for the deployment of 20,000 UN peacekeepers in Darfur, but Beshir has so far rejected such an option as well as proposals for a “hybrid” AU-UN force.
Natsios arrived in Khartoum on Saturday in a bid to soften Khartoum’s stance on peacekeepers and met Foreign Minister Lam Akol on Sunday.
“Natsios came with the idea that Sudan had a uncompromising stance and hadn’t accepted everything that was decided in Abuja,” foreign ministry spokesman Ali Sadek told reporters after the meeting.
“So we explained that have indeed accepted that the command of the African force be decided in consultation with the government, the AU and the UN,” he said, in reference to an AU meeting held earlier this month in Abuja.
The spokesman said Khartoum had also accepted the principle of some logistical UN support to African Union forces in Darfur.
During his trip, Natsios is expected to visit the southern city of Malakal — where violent clashes broke out last month — as well as the disputed central territory of Abyei.
(AFP)