African peacekeepers kill three rioting refugees in Darfur
Dec 11, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — African Union peacekeepers killed three Darfur rioters when a crowd of angry refugees threatened to break into their base in the town of El Geneina, a U.N. official said Monday.
It was the first time peacekeepers have killed Darfur civilians, marking new deterioration in the war-torn region of western Sudan. In a separate incident, the AU reported Monday that two of its peacekeepers had been kidnapped by gunmen the night before.
After the riot and shooting on Sunday, Sudanese police deployed around the African Union base to protect the peacekeepers, aid workers in El Geneina said.
The refugees protesting at the base were relatives of 30 civilians who were executed by pro-government janjaweed fighters on Saturday. They were protesting against the African Union for what they say is the peacekeeping force’s failure to protect them.
Peacekeepers opened fire on the protesters when they threatened the base, killing three, said the U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
An African Union officer in El Geneina, a town near the border with Chad, told The Associated Press that only two people had died, and that the peacekeepers opened fire because fighters carrying rocket-propelled grenades were sighted among the crowd. The officer also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give the information to the press.
The African Union said it could not immediately comment on the case.
African Union peacekeepers have been deployed in Darfur since mid-2004 on a mission to protect Darfur’s civilians in a three-year conflict that has killed more than 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.
But the force’s relations with Darfur’s population has long been tense, with refugees frequently complaining it does not protect them from janjaweed. The 7,000-member AU force has been too understaffed and underquipped to halt increasing violence in Darfur.
In the North Darfur capital of Al Fasher crowds demonstrated outside the AU headquarters and a nearby base last week after janjaweed killed 10 people in the town.
On Saturday, janjaweed ambushed a refugee convoy between El Geneina and the nearby town of Sirba, killing 30 people _ shooting some of the victims and burning others alive. Angry relatives briefly abducted eight AU peacekeepers sent to investigate the incident, releasing them later in the day.
In a separate incident, the AU said Monday that two peacekeepers were abducted and their car stolen by unidentified gunmen in Al Fasher late Sunday.
The African Union “condemns this hijacking in the strongest terms, and once more calls on the kidnapers to unconditionally release the personnel and the vehicle,” said the AU in a statement Monday. The AU did not specify if the soldiers were armed at the time of their abduction.
A U.N. official said a Nigerian major was among those abducted close to the house of the African Union’s force commander in Al Fasher.
(AP)