Sudan: UN humanitarian chief appeals to all parties to halt the "man-made disaster" by UN News / Reuters 3:23pm 8th Nov, 2006   19.11.2006.    Sudan Fresh Attacks. (AAP)    The African Union has accused the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militia of launching new air and ground attacks in northern Darfur in violation of security agreements.    According to the AU, the village of Birmaza has been the subject of a ground and aerial assault, causing heavy casualties among the civilian population. Anti-government groups on the ground said 70 people had died.    United Nations humanitarian chief Jan Egeland appealed to all parties to halt the "man-made disaster" there.    Mr Egeland said a recent accord which calls for a hybrid African Union-United Nations force in the area means there is now an opportunity for a credible force on the ground to protect the civilian population.    17 Nov 2006 (IRIN)    Sudan: Government "accepts" UN troops in Darfur.    The Sudanese government has �agreed in principle� to the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers in the western region of Darfur alongside African Union forces, officials said after a high-level meeting in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.    "A hybrid operation is agreed in principle, pending clarification of the size of the force," stated a communiqu� released at the end of the meeting. "The peacekeeping force will have a predominantly African character [but] backstopping and command and control structures will be provided by the UN."    The meeting, which discussed the continuing violence in Darfur, was attended by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the AU and representatives from Security Council member countries.    Sudan, however, expressed reservations over the size of the proposed hybrid force, saying the planned 17,000 soldiers and 3,000 police would need to be agreed on later. At the moment the AU has 7,000 troops, but critics say the underfunded force has largely been unable to stem the violence. The Addis Ababa meeting said it was necessary to urgently improve the capacity of the force.    The meeting called on the parties to the conflict to immediately cease hostilities. "With the public declaration to cease all hostilities from all parties, we believe the AU will be able to go one step further and facilitate direct talks between the government and the non-signatories [to the May agreement] to ensure that there is no impunity for violence in Darfur," the communiqu� added.    A day before the meeting, the Sudan government had indicated it may be willing to accept greater UN support for the AU mission, but insisted that peacekeeping operations in the region remain under AU control. "In relation to the proposal made by the UN Secretary-General, this confirms the fact that all people are looking for a new alternative," Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha said.    At least 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed in Darfur in the conflict between government forces, allied militias and rebels seeking greater autonomy, and more than two million more have been displaced.    In Darfur, the UN Emergency Humanitarian Coordinator, Jan Egeland, met displaced civilians and said it was the worst security situation he had ever seen in the region. "This is my fourth visit to Darfur and I have never before seen such a bad security situation. There are too many armed elements in and around the camps threatening the inhabitants and preventing us from going in," he said.    Meanwhile, the UN Children"s Fund (Unicef) said following recent attacks on civilians by armed men, thousands of women and children had taken shelter at a camp in south Darfur. An estimated 11,000 people arrived at Ottash Camp near Nyala in October alone, many of whom were were wounded and undernourished. The arrivals brought the number of people sheltering in the camp to 43,000.    "Most of them were mothers and children in dire need of shelter, food and water," Unicef Programme Officer Narinder Sharma said. "Some of them had been hiding in the bush since September when the trouble started, and they arrived at Ottash in a very bad way."    13 Nov 2006 (Reuters)    Violence in Darfur has escalated for months. An African Union official reported that up to 30 villagers were killed and 40 wounded on Saturday when armed men riding horses and camels attacked a village in Sirba, about 45 km (30 miles) north of El Geneina, capital of West Darfur state and close to the Sudan-Chad border.    The attackers are suspected to be janjaweed -- pro-government militia who have killed, raped and plundered non-Arab villagers. Some 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed since rebels took up arms in early 2003 to fight the government for a greater share in power and resources.    Hedi Annabi, an assistant secretary-general for peace-keeping operations, now in Addis Ababa, said Sudan had agreed for U.N. support for the Darfur operation -- including several hundred U.N. military, police and civilian personnel -- worth some $77 million.    But this enhancement is to strengthen the Africa Union without any U.N. command. Sudan still has to agree to a much larger AU-UN operation that would report to both bodies.    Such a hybrid force would have a "predominantly African character" but be adequately funded and equipped to better protect Darfur"s civilian population, according to the paper.    In his monthly report, released on Monday, Annan said he was "gravely concerned" about the Sudan government attempt to find a military solution to the crisis by sending thousands of soldiers to Darfur in violation of a faltering May peace agreement between the government and one rebel group.    "I particularly deplore the use of aerial bombardment by government forces, which fails to distinguish civilians from combatants," Annan wrote about developments in September.    Violence has spilled across the border to neighboring Central African Republic and Chad, which on Monday declared a state of emergency in the capital N"Djamena and some eastern areas on the Sudanese border.    Sudan and Chad support each other"s rebels, according to U.N. relief officials. Both Chad and the Central African Republic have called for the deployment of international troops to secure their borders.    (Additional reporting by Opheera McDoom in Khartoum, Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa, Betel Miarom in N"Djamena and Pascal Fletcher in Dakar)    Seoul. 07 Nov 2006    Sudan: Next U.N. chief pledges swift action on Darfur, by Kwaku Sakyi-Addo. (Reuters)    The U.N. secretary-general elect, South Korea"s Ban Ki-Moon, said on Tuesday he aimed to meet Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir as soon as possible to break the deadlock over U.N. peacekeepers going to Darfur.    Ban, who takes office on Jan.1, said the international community and the United Nations in particular needed to halt the violence in Sudan"s western Darfur region "before it"s too late".    An estimated 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur since 2003 in what the U.S. government has dubbed genocide. More than 2.5 million people have been displaced by the fighting between rebels, the Sudanese government and its allied Arab militias.    The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution in August to send 22,000 peacekeepers to Darfur. Sudan says that would be like a return to colonisation by Western powers.    "I"m going to meet Sudanese leaders and other African leaders to help resolve this Darfur crisis before it"s too late," Ban told Reuters in an interview in Seoul.    Asked if he planned to meet Bashir, Ban replied: "I hope I"ll be able to meet him as soon as possible; but I"ll try to meet the foreign minister first."    Ban, South Korea"s minister for foreign affairs and trade, also pledged to concentrate on resolving the situation in Somalia, where tensions continue between Islamists controlling Mogadishu and the Western-backed interim government in Baidoa.    "Somalia"s people should also be able to enjoy political and social stability," he told Reuters.    Ban had sought earlier on Tuesday to allay concerns that Africa would slide from the United Nations agenda under his tenure. Two people from the continent, Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan, have run the world body since 1992.    "I will literally pour down my attention and passion towards Africa to resolve the problems inherent in the continent," he told four African presidents at a dinner in Seoul to mark the first Korea-Africa Forum. "The African continent still faces a multitude of challenges in the 21st century."    Asked whether his attention might be more occupied by the nuclear testing crisis in North Korea, Ban said the U.N. chief"s role was to address the challenges facing the whole of the international community, not just one region.    "As I come from Korea, that issue is one that I will deal with," he told Reuters. "But ... as secretary-general, my job and priority will be on development as much as on North Korea"s nuclear issues."    Ban, who has quietly resisted U.S. pressure for the secretary-general to adopt a less political role, had earlier thanked African states for supporting his candidacy for the job.    He acknowledged, however, that the United Nations had mishandled crises in Africa, such as the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which more than 800,000 people, mainly from the minority Tutsi ethnic group, were killed in just over three months.    The Korean diplomat, known for his soft-spoken approach, said he was shocked by a visit to the Rwanda Genocide Memorial in May, one of his eight visits to Africa this year.    "That experience will have a big implication on my future duties as the next secretary-general," Ban told the gathering, attended by the presidents of Ghana, Congo Republic, Benin and Tanzania.    "In hindsight, my humble thought was that had the U.N. intervened in the Rwandan genocide at an earlier stage, such an unfortunate disaster would have been prevented," he said.    2 November 2006    Condemning the recent militia attacks in Sudan"s strife-torn West Darfur region that killed scores of civilians, reportedly including young children, and forced thousands more to flee, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on all sides to respect humanitarian law and appealed to the Government to prevent such violence.    The Secretary-General condemns the large-scale militia attacks in the Jebel Moon area on 29 and 30 October. "The attacks on eight civilian settlements, including a camp harbouring some 3,500 internally displaced persons, caused scores of civilian deaths and forced thousands to flee the area", Mr. Annan said in a statement attributable to his spokesman.    The Secretary-General is particularly distressed on hearing reports that 27 of those killed were children under the age of 12.    The Secretary-General calls again in the strongest possible terms on the parties to respect their agreements and the provisions of international humanitarian law. He appeals once more to the Government of Sudan to take all necessary measures to prevent further attacks against civilians, particularly by militia forces. Visit the related web page
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