African Union says latest Darfur cease-fire seems to be holding

By JASPER MORTIMER, Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt, Dec 22, 2004 (AP) — The cease-fire declared this week by government and rebel forces in the west Sudanese region of Darfur appears to be holding, a senior African Union official said Wednesday. But the United Nations and aid groups report continuing insecurity.

The spokesperson for the United Nations advance mission in the Sudan, Radhia Achouri speaks in Khartoum Wednesday, Dec.15, 2004. (AP).

“We have not heard of any fighting between the belligerents,” the senior AU political officer in Sudan, Jean Baptiste, said in a phone call from his office in Khartoum.

The Sudanese government said Monday it was ordering its troops in three areas of Darfur to observe an immediate cease-fire. On Tuesday, representatives of the two main rebel groups in Darfur announced at peace talks in Nigeria that their fighters would not initiate attacks.

“It appears to be respected,” Baptiste said of the cease-fire.

Darfur cease-fires have been frequently violated. The first was declared in April. Another was declared in Nov. 9, and was broken by the rebel Sudan Liberation Army less than two weeks later.

The latest round of fighting was focused in South Darfur, particularly around Labado, a town of 27,000 people, where clashes began on Dec. 17.

Baptiste said an AU team of cease-fire monitors and protection troops arrived in Labado on Tuesday. The African Union has about 800 troops and 100 monitors in Darfur.

“The team saw government of Sudan troops in the area, but there was no fighting between them and the Sudan Liberation Army and Justice and Equality Movement — because they had left the place,” Baptiste said, naming the two main rebel groups.

However, the United Nations and humanitarian groups say the insecurity continues.

U.N. spokeswoman Radhia Achouri told reporters in Khartoum on Wednesday that the pro-government Janjaweed militia had attacked villages in Darfur in the past two weeks, forcing thousands to flee. She said the Abou Shouk camp alone had received 1,100 refugees last week because of the attacks.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the U.N. Security Council to reassess its efforts to end the Darfur conflict, saying Wednesday the current policy is not working.

The Security Council has condemned the repeated cease-fire violations and warned Tuesday it would consider “a full range of options” if the fighting did not cease.

Aid groups report the violence is impeding their ability to deliver food and other assistance to the 1.8 million people displaced by the 22-month conflict.

“We still have locations that continue to be inaccessible due to lack of security,” World Food Program spokeswoman Laura Melo said Wednesday. The insecurity was due to bandits as well as fighting between the rebels and government soldiers.

“We are assisting an estimated 1.5 million people in need, but the number of those in need of assistance is close to 2 million,” Melo said in Nairobi, Kenya.

Earlier Wednesday, the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, said government troops had shot dead one of its Sudanese workers in front of an MSF warehouse during the recent fighting in Labado.

Some 29 other Sudanese workers for MSF are still missing from the fighting in Labado, the group said in a statement.

On Tuesday, the charity Save the Children U.K. said it was withdrawing from Darfur because four of its workers have been killed by gunfire and a land mine explosion since October.

The Darfur conflict, which the United Nations describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Army and allied Justice and Equality Movement took up arms against what they saw as years of state neglect and discrimination against Sudanese of African origin.

The government responded with a counter-insurgency campaign in which the Janjaweed, an Arab militia, committed wide-scale abuses against the African population.