UN official says little progress made on Darfur force
May 14, 2008 (UNITED NATIONS) — The U.N. peacekeeping chief expressed concern today that the rebel attack on capital could pose serious threats to the deployment of the peacekeeping force.
Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno speaking to the UN Security Council (UNSC) that retaliation by the Sudanese government “could impede UNAMID deployment”.
Guehenno said the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) attack on the capital’s twin city Omdurman over the weekend “took us by surprise” and blamed it on the “serious shortfall in aerial reconnaissance capabilities”.
The UN official told the UNSC that UNAMID has received unconfirmed reports that Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) Unity faction has gathered 40 vehicles to attack Al-Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur.
Moreover the peacekeeping chief said that there are reports that JEM and Chadian armed elements have crossed the borders into western Darfur.
JEM rebels staged a bold attack last Saturday and fought fierce battles with the Sudanese army on the outskirts of the capital. However the Sudanese government repulsed the attack and accused Chad of backing the assault.
Al-Bashir said in a televised statement that he holds Chad responsible of the foiled attack by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) troops against the Sudanese capital. He also announced that diplomatic relations with Chad have been broken.
Guehenno also spoke of continuous clashes between rebel movements and government forces, as well as armed factions of the rebel movements in west and south Darfur. He accused Khartoum of using the air force against civilian areas inflicting casualties among them and causing displacement of 100,000 civilians.
UN Security Council adopted resolution 1769 on July 31st which authorized a hybrid UN-AU force (UNAMID) consisting of 26,000 troops and police but so far it only has only 9,000 personnel.
However the deployment was impeded by Khartoum’s objections to the composition of the force and lack of helicopters. The UN has for months been seeking 6 attack and 18 transport helicopters to support the force with no success.
The outgoing peacekeeping chief complained that UNAMID faced obstacles to freedom of movement despite an agreement with Khartoum called Status of Force Agreement (SOFA).
He further said that moving UMAID assets from Port Sudan to Darfur is too slow because of Sudan custom clearance process which takes a month and that the distance is too long from the coastal city.
U.N. officials estimate that as many as 300,000 people may have been killed in the five-year-old Darfur conflict. Khartoum says the figure is only about 10,000.
(ST)