African Union helicopter rescues aid workers from Darfur clashes

CAIRO, NOV 22, 2004 (AP) — Aid workers fled into bush areas Monday to escape fierce clashes in Sudan’s Darfur region before being rescued by an African Union helicopter and flown to safety, U.N. and aid agency officials said.

Rwandan African Union troops board a helicopter in El Fasher in North Darfur on November 5, 2004. (Reuters).

Kate Haiff, Sudan country director for Save The Children, UK, said 20 workers for her organization and some other people were airlifted from the Tawilla area, in North Darfur state, where fighting between rebels and Arab militia has raged since Sunday.

“Our staff have been evacuated by helicopter and are arriving in (North Darfur’s capital of) Al-Fasher,” Haiff said during a telephone interview with The Associated Press in Egypt.

U.N. spokesman in Khartoum, George Somerwill, said 45 people were airlifted to safety by an African Union helicopter after fleeing into bush areas following fighting Monday in Tawilla.

“They ran into the bush while there was fighting and were rescued by an African Union helicopter,” Somerwill told the AP.

Somerwill said a tribal dispute over livestock sparked the clashes and resulted in rebel South Liberation Army forces attacking government-allied Arab militia known as the Janjaweed.

African Union monitors said six civilians were killed during the clashes, which followed a cease-fire deal signed between rebels and the Sudanese government on Nov. 9 in Nigeria.

Darfur’s conflict started in February 2003 when two non-Arab African rebel groups took up arms to fight for more power and resources. The Sudanese government responded by backing the Janjaweed, which are now accused of targeting civilians in a campaign of murder, rape and arson. International agencies estimate that since March, disease, malnutrition and clashes among the displaced have killed more than 70,000 people.