US says concerned over fresh Darfur violence

October 17, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — The United States said Wednesday it was concerned over a spate of bloody violence in Sudan’s Darfur region in recent weeks, including the latest killing of three UN truck drivers.

Two of the drivers from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) were killed Tuesday in south Darfur as they were returning from delivering supplies near the scene of an attack on an African Union base which killed 10 peacekeepers last month.

The third driver was killed last Friday during the Muslim holiday of Eid, on his way to north Darfur, the WFP said, adding that 25 bags of grain were looted from the truck during the incident.

“It is certainly troubling to us to see these kinds of incidents and we have seen an increased level of violence in Darfur in the last few weeks,” said Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman.

Attacks against humanitarian workers are frequent in Darfur where a four-year civil war has killed at least 200,000 people and displaced two million others. Khartoum contests the figure and says only 9,000 died in the conflict.

Casey called on rebels, the government and other parties to desist from

violence and focus their attention on bringing about a peaceful negotiated settlement.

A Darfur peace deal was signed in May 2006 between Khartoum and one of three negotiating rebel factions.

Since then, the rebel groups have splintered into dozens of factions. UN envoy to Darfur Jan Eliasson said last week he was aware of 28 rebel groups.

Fresh peace talks have been slated for October 27 in Libya.

(AFP)