France urges Sudan government to stop Darfur Arab militia’s attacks
PARIS, May 7 (AFP) — France has urged the Sudanese government immediately to stop attacks by its ally in the war in Sudan’s western Darfur region, the Arab Janjawid militia, a foreign ministry spokesman said here Friday.
“We are worried by corroborating reports saying that the armed militia called the Janjawid are still active, not only in Darfur but also in neighbouring Chad,” said Herve Ladsous.
The Chadian government brokered a peace pact for Darfur on April 8, under which the parties to the 15-month conflict in the far west of Sudan — Khartoum and its Janjawid allies, and two rebel groups — agreed to stop fighting, guarantee safe passage for humanitarian aid to the stricken region, free prisoners of war and disarm militias.
France represented the European Union at the talks in Ndjamena that resulted in the pact, Ladsous said.
“We urge the government in Khartoum to immediately take all necessary steps to ensure that the Ndjamena ceasefire accord is respected and to halt all activities of these militias,” Ladsous told reporters in Paris.
“The African Union is about to send a military reconnaissance mission to Darfur, in which representatives of France and the European Union are expected to take part, with a view to setting up a military commission to monitor the ceasefire called for in the April 8 accord,” said Ladsous.
“This presence will help to calm the situation in Darfur by restoring confidence and facilitating access, notably of humanitarian staff, who must now, imperatively, be able to bring aid to displaced persons,” he said.
Reports by Human Rights Watch and the UN have said one million people have been displaced in Darfur and some 10,000 killed in just over a year of fighting. A UN report obtained by AFP Thursday also accused the Khartoum government of deliberately starving civilians in Darfur.
On Wednesday, the Chadian government said Janjawid fighters had launched an attack inside Chad, the second in a week.
The war in Darfur began in February 2003, when two rebel groups drawn from black African ethnic groups took up arms against the Khartoum government to demand an end to economic marginalization and to seek power-sharing within the Arab-ruled Sudanese state.
The rebels are fighting the Sudanese army and its Janjawid allies, who, according to HRW, target civilian populations from which the rebels are drawn.