International observers arrive in Khartoum en route for Darfur

NAIROBI, June 2 (AFP) — The first international observers mandated to monitor a shaky ceasefire in western Sudan’s Darfur region arrived in Khartoum Wednesday, officials said.

On Tuesday night seven AU observers left Addis Ababa, where the African Union is based, and arrived in the Sudanese capital the following morning, an AU official said.

The AU is playing a lead role in the mission.

Some of the observers were due to head to El-Fahsir, one of the main towns in Darfur, where a major humanitarian crisis has developed since the start of a rebellion in February 2003.

On Tuesday, one of the rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement, said 24 people had been killed in a two-day assault by government forces in the West Darfur village of Adjidji, in violation of a ceasefire signed in April.

At least 10,000 people are estimated to have been killed in Darfur.

About a million are thought to have fled the impoverished region following attacks by Sudanese troops and Janjawid militias on black African civilians, with up 100,000 of them taking refuge in neighbouring Chad.