UN demands end to Darfur air strikes

May 9, 2007 (UNITED NATIONS) — UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called for an end to reported air bombardments by Sudanese government forces in war-ravaged Darfur and urged all sides to cooperate with mediation efforts to end the conflict.

UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said Ban was “deeply concerned by reports of aerial bombardments in north Darfur over last three weeks” which have caused destruction, loss of life and new displacement of civilians.

She gave no further details on exactly when and where the air strikes took place.

In a statement, Montas said the UN secretary general “urges the government of Sudan to cease all attacks and comply fully” with the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) it signed last May with the main Darfur rebel group.

Reiterating that only a political solution can bring peace and stability to Darfur, the UN chief pressed Khartoum and its rebel foes “to immediately stop military hostilities and cooperate fully with the African Union and United Nations team which is leading efforts to mediate an end to this devastating conflict.”

UN special envoy Jan Eliasson and his African Union (AU) counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim have been spearheading efforts to shore up the DPA by broadening it to include those Darfur rebel groups which have so far refused to sign it.

The United Nations has meanwhile secured Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir’s consent for the first two phases of a peacekeeping plan, including deployment of about 3,000 UN troops to bolster 7,000 ill-equipped AU troops that have so far failed to stem four years of ethnic strife in Darfur.

But Beshir he has yet to approve the final and most contentious stage of the plan which involves the deployment of a “hybrid” UN-AU force of 20,000 troops in the strife-torn western Sudanese region.

Some 200,000 people have died in Darfur since 2003 and two million more fled their homes, according to UN figures, although some sources put the toll much higher. Sudan says that only 9,000 have died.

(AFP)