UN envoy warns Khartoum that Darfur situation not improved

KHARTOUM, Oct 14 (AFP) — The situation in Sudan’s western Darfur region has not recently improved, a UN envoy told AFP Thursday, hinting Khartoum could face sanctions if no progress was made by the end of the month.

“The security situation in Darfur has not seen improvement since the beginning of October,” said Radhia Achouri, a spokeswoman for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk.

She charged there was still not enough security for civilians in Darfur, where a 20-month-old crisis has left some 50,000 people dead, displaced an estimated 1.4 million and forced a further 200,000 to flee into neighbouring Chad.

Achouri cited 11 cases of abductions, killings and obstruction of humanitarian assistance over the past two weeks alone.

She warned that Pronk “has 16 more days to submit his monthly report to the UN Security Council which will decide whether to impose sanctions or not”.

On Wednesday, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot — whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union — met with Sudanese leaders in Khartoum and urged the government to meet the demands of the international community.

Khartoum is under the threat of UN-imposed sanctions on its vital oil industry if it fails to rein in its militias, accused of committing massacres in Darfur.

Achouri also said Pronk had met Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) leader Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur on Monday and discussed recent developments in Darfur and forthcoming negotiations in Abuja, Nigeria, set for October 21.

She said Pronk urged Nur — whose group is one of the two main rebel movements in Darfur — as well as the government to engage in the negotiations “in good faith and with a firm commitment for reaching a negotiated peace settlement” to the conflict.

Achouri said the African Union peace and security commission would meet in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa next Tuesday to consider the proposed expansion of the AU force in Darfur.