VIOLENT CLASHES BREAK OUT IN DARFUR

Sudanese soldiers have been fighting with rebels in the Darfur region in recent days, the army has confirmed.

The clashes, in Korma in northern Darfur, were the first major battles since a UN commander said last month that the region was no longer at war.

The joint African Union-United Nations force Unamid is investigating.

Sudanese officials say 10,000 people have died since the conflict broke out in 2003. The UN says 300,000 have died and 2.7 million have been displaced.

From 2003 to 2005, when the conflict was at its height, aid agencies labelled the situation in Darfur as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

A faction of the main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), said the latest clashes broke out on Thursday and continued into Friday.

The group said 20 civilians were killed during the fighting.

In a statement, the Sudanese military confirmed the clashes but said nothing about casualties.

DISPLACED IN DARFUR

2006 547,420 people fled their homes

2007 302,794

2008 317,000

2009 (first six months) 137,000

Total to date: 2.7m Source: UN humanitarian agency Ocha

The statement said only that government forces had “purged the areas of the remnants” of the SLA.

None of the claims have yet been independently verified.

Unamid said it was planning to send an investigation team to the area.

“We are waiting to sent an urgent mission there to verify and assess the security and humanitarian situation,” said spokesman Nourredine Mezni.

The clashes are the first of any note since Unamid’s outgoing military commander Gen Martin Agwai said the war in Darfur was effectively over.

The Nigerian officer characterised the violence in Sudan’s Western province as closer to criminality than an outright war.

Next month peace talks on Darfur will continue in the Qatari capital Doha.

But the BBC’s James Copnall, in Sudan, says SLA leader Abdulwahid El Nour has made it clear he is very unlikely to attend.

On Sunday President Omar al-Bashir appealed to all the armed movements in Darfur to join the talks.

He called on “the remaining sons of Darfur who took up arms against the government” to stop fighting and join the peace process.

The war broke out in the arid and impoverished region early in 2003 when rebel groups attacked government targets, accusing Khartoum of oppressing black Africans in favour of Arabs.

Pro-government militiamen hit back with brutal force, which the US and some rights groups have labelled genocide.

Khartoum denies supporting the militias, but the international court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant earlier this year for Mr Bashir, accusing him of war crimes.

SOURCED FROM BBC

UN PEACEKEEPER SHOT DEAD IN DARFUR

An international peacekeeper has been shot dead in Sudan’s Darfur region, in an apparent bid to steal his car, the joint UN-African Union mission said.

He was shot outside his home on Thursday night in the south Darfur town of Nyala as he was parking his car, Unamid officials said.

Details of the dead man’s nationality and rank were not given.

Sudan announced earlier that it was inviting new aid groups to work in Darfur in a move welcomed by the UN.

It expelled 13 foreign aid groups in March after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

But on Thursday, the Minister for Humanitarian Assistance, Haroun Lual Ruun, said Khartoum would invite new non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to Darfur and allow UN agencies and NGOs currently operating there to “expand their existing operations”.

A number of gunmen attacked the peacekeeper, Unamid spokesman Kemal Saiki said.

His car was later found abandoned 7km from Nyala.

Rudolph Adada, the Unamid special representative, condemned the attack

“Attacks against peacekeepers are considered war crimes,” he said.

Before the latest killing, Unamid had suffered 34 deaths since it began operating in Darfur on 31 July 2007, its website records

As of 31 March, it had a total of 15,351 uniformed personnel on the ground plus 919 international civilian personnel.

SOURCED FROM BBC

PEACEKEEPERS IN DARFUR ARE UNDERMANNED AND UNDERGUNNED

Overstretched peacekeepers in Darfur lack vehicles, helicopters and other equipment and could be in trouble if seriously attacked, the force’s deputy commander said on Tuesday.

The joint U.N.-African Union force now has about 12,000 soldiers and police, less than half of a promised 26,000, almost a year after it arrived in Sudan’s violent west.

Major General Emmanuel Karenzi told reporters the mission was severely short of equipment, including a total lack of transport and attack helicopters.”I wouldn’t say we are helpless,” he said at UNAMID headquarters in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur.

“If you are talking about a fully-fledged attack on UNAMID with big weapons we may find ourselves in a difficult position to defend ourselves.”

A total of 11 UNAMID peacekeepers have been killed in Darfur in ambushes and other incidents since the force replaced an African Union mission at the beginning of the year.The peacekeepers, who are supposed to cover a remote region about the size of France, have often found themselves caught up in a chaotic conflict involving bandits, government forces, insurgent factions and militias.

In the single bloodiest attack on peacekeepers since the start of the conflict, 12 African Union troops were killed when gunmen stormed their base in Haskanita in September 2007.

SOURCED FROM REUTERS

DARFURIS FACE RENEWED ATTACK THREATS

Peacekeepers on Monday said they had sent reinforcements to guard a volatile camp for displaced Darfuris after reports of accusations that Sudanese government forces might be preparing an attack.

But Sudan’s armed forces denied any plans to attack Kalma camp, home to around 90,000 people who have fled more than five years of fighting in Sudan’s remote west.The U.N.-African Union UNAMID force said it would carry out 24-hour patrols of Kalma camp, “as a result of recent alleged threats of an attack on the camp by the Government of Sudan Forces”.

Force spokesman Kemal Saiki did not go into detail about the source of the threats.More than 30 Kalma residents were killed when soldiers and armed police raided the camp in August, saying they were searching for weapons and suspects.

Tensions rose again in the camp last week when Sudanese interior ministry officials accused camp residents of shooting down a UNAMID-contracted helicopter, killing all four people on board.Aid sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were growing fears authorities would use the investigation into the helicopter crash as an excuse to raid the camp again.

But a spokesman for Sudan’s armed forces told Reuters: “There is no possibility of any attack on this camp by the armed forces, or on any other camp in Darfur.”The Sudanese government has long said Kalma has become a base and weapon store for bandits and rebel groups.

Rebels and camp activists have denied the accusation, saying the government is trying to clear the camp as part of a forced resettlement programme.

The growing tension at Kalma comes at a sensitive time for Khartoum which is stepping up diplomatic efforts to block a move by the International Criminal Court to indict Sudan’s president for war crimes in Darfur.

State media on Monday reported high-level delegations were holding talks with “senior officials” in Britain and France, permanent members of the U.N. Security Council with the power to veto any attempt to delay the global court’s action.

SOURCED FROM REUTERS