African Union says 62 killed in Darfur tribal fighting
April 18, 2007 (EL-FASHER) — Sixty-two people were killed in Darfur in a new spree of tribal fighting that struck this violence-plagued region in western Sudan, the African Union said Wednesday.
The clashes occurred earlier this week in the Abu Gorgah sector of North Darfur where 11 villages were also looted, an AU report said.
AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni said the African Union “condemns this fighting and calls on tribal leaders to avoid any further killing and destruction.” A team of African peacekeepers has been sent to the area to investigate the incident.
More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million made refugees in Darfur since 2003, when ethnically African rebels rose up against the Arab dominated central government.
Khartoum is accused of retaliating by arming local nomadic Arab tribes and unleashing militias known as the janjaweed on civilian populations. The government denies this but the International Criminal Court in the Hague has accused a Sudanese cabinet minister and a suspected janjaweed chief of 51 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The AU report came as U.S. President George W. Bush ramped up pressure on Sudan, saying Wednesday that the United States will tighten economic sanctions and impose new ones if President Omar al-Bashir does not take quick, concrete steps to stop Darfur’s bloodletting.
Bush said the Sudanese government must allow U.N. support forces, facilitate deployment of a full U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force, stop supporting violent militias and let humanitarian aid reach the people of Darfur.
Intertribal clashes have also claimed hundreds of lives in Darfur this year, often among nomad Arab tribes suspected of supplying the janjaweed troops and apparently increasingly fighting over the loot.
But if was not immediately clear whether the clashes Monday between the Darruk and the Gimmir semi-nomadic tribes, were politically or ethnically motivated. Fighting also occurred in southern Darfur in the past days, illustrating the growing chaos in the region despite a peace agreement signed last year by one rebel group and the government.
On Monday, Khartoum ended five months of stalling and accepted that 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers come to Darfur as reinforcement to the overwhelmed 7,000 AU peacekeepers deployed here.
The move was viewed as a significant breakthrough that could help end the suffering of over 4 million people affected by Darfur’s violence. But the United States, the United Nations and others worry Khartoum will still resist the third, final stage of a U.N.-backed plan for a “hybrid force” of 20,000 U.N. troops and police to operate in Darfur.
Meanwhile, U.S. State Department expressed concern Wednesday over charges in a United Nations report that Sudanese aircraft have been flying military equipment into Darfur in violation of Security Council resolutions.
The confidential U.N. report, leaked to the New York Times, “is a cause for real concern,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, adding the report will provide important input into upcoming Security Council decisions on next steps on Darfur.
U.N. and AU officials in Sudan said they had not read the report and could not comment on accusations it made that Sudan has been flying arms and heavy military equipment into Darfur aboard planes painted white to disguise them as U.N. or AU aircraft.
However, an AU officer in El Fasher said there had been a massive influx of Sudanese soldiers and paramilitary groups in recent months.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, the officer said janjaweed militias had set up camp in a part of the town since late 2006, and that the military was increasing its presence in Darfur with thousands of new troops, in breach of the peace agreement signed last May which the AU is meant to monitor.
“The Sudanese government troop transfers are so many that we’ve even ceased to monitor,” the officer said. He said rebels were also violating the peace deal. As he spoke, trucks of Sudanese troops could be seen driving around the town, shouting slogans and touting their pink regimental flags.
Other AU officers, who also declined to be named, said there was evidence of transportation of bombs, government air strikes and military flights despite the peace agreement and U.N. resolutions.
On Tuesday in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, two Sudanese fighter jets and several attack helicopters could be seen flying at low altitude over a suburb of the town where residents said there was intertribal fighting.
(AP)