African Union police officer killed in Darfur

Feb 1, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — An African Union policeman was killed on Thursday by an unknown gunman who stole his vehicle in Sudan’s violent Darfur region, an AU spokesman said.

The 7,500-strong AU mission in Darfur has struggled to maintain a shaky ceasefire but Khartoum rejects a U.N. takeover of the force, despite a Security Council resolution authorisng more than 22,500 U.N. police and soldiers to deploy.

“They killed one of our people today around 11:45 a.m. (0845 GMT),” said AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni. “An unknown gunman snatched the vehicle, which had three occupants in it, and shot one of the policemen dead,” he added.

This is the 11th member of the AU force killed in Sudan’s west. The force, suffering from lack of cash and weak logistics, has become a target of attacks itself in the remote region bordering Chad.

The policeman was shot dead inside the Kassab Camp in Kutum town in North Darfur. The town is government controlled, although rebels have bases nearby.

Hundreds of miserable camps, mostly near towns, house some 2.5 million Darfuris who have fled their homes during four years of rape, pillage and murder, which Washington calls genocide.

Khartoum denies genocide and European governments are reluctant to use the term. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating alleged war crimes and says it may present its first case this month.

Khartoum calls a U.N. mission in Darfur an attempt at Western colonisation. But observers say the government really fears the troops may arrest any officials likely to be indicted by the ICC.

It was not immediately known where the policeman was from. Most of the troops in Darfur are from Rwanda, Senegal and Nigeria. But the more than 1,000 unarmed civilian police are from all across the continent.

(Reuters)