Sudan government preparing new offensive in Darfur: AU commander

ABUJA, Dec 17 (AFP) — The Sudanese government has launched an offensive in the western region of Darfur and appears to be preparing further military action despite promises to respect a truce, the commander of the African Union observer force in Darfur said Friday.

Baba Gana Kingibe, the representative of the head of the AU Commission, left, and the commander of the African troops in Darfur, Major Gen. Okomkwo tour the camp at El-Fashir Wednesday, Dec. 8,2004. (AP).

“One thing that must be said today is that the situation in Darfur has become more dangerous with the build-up of forces in the last two weeks … The present situation in Darfur is therefore that of a timebomb which could explode at any moment,” General Festus Okonkwo said.

Briefing delegates and international observers at stalled peace talks here, the Nigerian officer recommended that the Khartoum government should be pressed to withdraw its newly deployed forces from Darfur and called on the region’s rebel movements to remove roadblocks and halt their looting raids.

“The quantity of arms and ammunition brought into Darfur to meet the present build-up of troops in the region is so astronomical that the issue is no longer whether there will be fighting or not, but when the fighting will start,” he said in a report released to the media.

Darfur’s two main rebel movements have suspended their participation in the peace talks in Abuja in protest at what they say is the government’s continuing offensive against them in breach of a ceasefire deal signed in the Chadian capital Ndjamena in April of this year.

Okonkwo commands an 834-strong African Union force of military observers and protection troops in Darfur tasked with overseeing the ceasefire. He is in Abuja to brief government and rebel delegates and international observers at the suspended peace conference on the situation on the ground in Darfur.