Darfur militia kill 30 civilans, rioters hold AU investigators
Dec 10, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Militiamen on horseback ambushed a refugee convoy in western Darfur, killing some 30 civilians, and African Union peacekeepers investigating the attack were taken hostage by rioters, the AU and the U.N. said Sunday.
The United Nations said armed men ambushed the civilian truck transporting medicine and relief items between the towns of El Geneina and Sirba.
The exact number of civilians killed could not be confirmed, but was estimated at around 30 people, said Radhia Achouri, spokeswoman for the U.N. mission in Sudan.
“Some of the passengers were shot by the attackers and others were burnt to death during the attack,” the U.N. said in a separate statement.
An international aid worker said the assailants were government-backed janjaweed — members of an Arab tribal militia — and that they attacked the convoy with rocket-propelled grenades, then executed survivors. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of restrictions the Sudanese government has placed on aid workers.
AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni said rioters angry over the deaths were holding captive a helicopter crew and eight AU peacekeepers sent to investigate. The AU base in El Geneina was also being attacked, Mezni said, although the identity of the attackers was unclear.
Sudanese police transported the bodies of the victims, all ethnic African refugees from the Erenga tribe, to a refugee camp on the outskirts of El Geneina, and demonstrations erupted around the town, the aid worker said.
A U.N. official in Darfur said rioting and sporadic shooting took place in the town on Sunday.
The airport was closed and all U.N. staff and aid workers were grounded, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Some 135 U.N. staff, diplomats and aid workers have already been evacuated from the North Darfur capital of El Fasher, after at least 10 people were killed in a week of janjaweed attacks there.
Another 25 U.N. and aid workers were pulled out from the North Darfur town of Kutum, and 41 aid workers have been withdrawn from various locations in South Darfur where an aid group’s compound was raided by armed men in uniform, the U.N. said.
The increased violence underscored the worsening situation in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes since fighting erupted in early 2003.
The government is accused of unleashing the janjaweed to help counter the ethnic African rebels, and the militia are blamed for the worst atrocities against civilians during the conflict.
Khartoum denies backing the janjaweed, but agreed to disarm them as part of a peace agreement it signed with one Darfur rebel group in May.
Rebels have threatened to attack Al Fasher — including the African Union headquarters — to protect civilians from the janjaweed.
An aid worker in Al Fasher said the janjaweed militia had deployed across the town. The fighters were dressed in a government uniform for a new paramilitary group called the Sudan Border Intelligence Force, he said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Khartoum is accused of having incorporated many janjaweed into its armed forces by making them join paramilitary groups, but says these soldiers are regular troops who do not commit war crimes. U.N. officials say these troops have killed hundreds of civilians in recent weeks.
Authorities could not immediately confirm Sunday media reports that a police officer and a student were killed in a separate ambush between Al Fasher and El Geneina. The U.N. reported heavy clashes in that area between the Sudanese army and militias and a rebel faction in that area.
The official SUNA news agency said Defence Minister Abdelrahim Hussein was heading to Al Fasher to “review the situation.”
Flights to Darfur were canceled Sunday, and authorities have forbidden foreign journalists from entering the region for over a month.
(AP)