Gunmen Kill Two Darfur Peacekeepers
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Wednesday, March 7, 2007
KHARTOUM, Sudan, March 7 -- In a blow to the Darfur peace accord, gunmen believed to belong to rebel groups that signed the agreement have killed two African peacekeepers and threatened staff at a peacekeeping office, the African Union said Wednesday.
The A.U. said it was "deeply concerned" that the rebels apparently belonged to the Minnawi faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement, which signed the peace agreement in May.
Gunmen kidnapped and killed the two A.U. peacekeepers Monday in Gereida, South Darfur, the A.U. said. A third peacekeeper was critically wounded.
The attack undermines international efforts to promote the May agreement and persuade other warring factions to sign it.
It also highlights the difficulties of the 7,000-member A.U. force in Darfur, a western region of Sudan. Eleven A.U. military personnel have been killed on duty since the force was deployed to Darfur in 2004. Another peacekeeper is listed as missing.
With the A.U. force overwhelmed in a region the size of France, the U.N. Security Council recommended last year that it be replaced by more than 20,000 U.N. peacekeepers. The Sudanese government rejected that idea, insisting that the A.U. needs only technical assistance and equipment from the United Nations.
More than 450,000 people have died from disease and violence and 2.5 million have fled their homes in four years of fighting in Darfur. The conflict began in early 2003 when members of the region's ethnic African tribes took up arms against what they saw as decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.
The government is accused of unleashing a pro-government Arab militia that has committed many of the atrocities in the conflict. Several rebel factions refused to sign the May accord, and the conflict subsequently escalated.
Before the attack Monday, about 30 gunmen surrounded an office for the implementation of the peace agreement in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, and "threatened the officer in charge," the A.U. said, adding that those gunmen also belonged to groups that signed the May accord.
