Three police officers killed in South Darfur

May 12, 2009 (KHARTOUL) – Three police officers were killed yesterday in South Darfur by unidentified gunmen while the head of the hybrid peacekeeping force said concerned by the recent fighting between armed groups in the region.

Armed men riding camel and horses killed three policemen and wounded another in an ambush held east of Nyala, the regional capital of South Darfur, local authorities said on Tuesday.

The assailants aimed to steal their weapons, said Fatah Al-Rahman Osman, the police chief of South Darfur state.

In a report to the UN Security Council the head of Darfur peacekeeping mission, Rodolphe Adada, described the situation in Darfur saying “Darfur today is a conflict of all against all,” adding that endemic banditry and the breakdown of law and order dominates the situation in Darfur.
He also mentioned the fighting between the rebel groups and the rebels and former rebels.

Adada discussed today the rampant insecurity situation in Darfur during separate meetings in Khartoum with the Presidential Adviser, Mustafa Osman Ismail and the Under-Secretary of the Sudanese Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mutrif Siddiq

The Joint Special Representative expressed concern over recent clashes between the former rebel SLM led by Minni Minnawi and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in North Darfur state last Saturday May 9.

Adada, who urged the two armed groups to end hostilities in the region, further said that the UNAMID, had transported 26 people injured in the fighting to the North Darfur capital of El Fasher for medical treatment at the military hospital.

(ST)