Attacks go on as Sudan flirts with sanctions

AFRICAN Union monitors are investigating claims that Sudanese helicopter gunships bombed a village just days before the expiry of the United Nations’ deadline for the Khartoum government to end the violence in Darfur.

Officials from the AU have visited Um Hashab village to try to establish what happened in the attack, which is reported to have taken place last Thursday.

But with the UN security council due to meet this week to discuss whether Sudan has done enough to stave off sanctions, one senior UN official yesterday insisted that attacks on refugees in Darfur remained a major problem.

Dennis McNamara, a special adviser to the UN Emergency Relief Co-ordinator on Displacement, said the attacks included multiple rapes by armed militia of Darfuri women and girls.

"It hasn’t stopped. There are enough first-hand, credible reports that this remains a major problem. Security needs to be improved and perpetrators need to be prosecuted," he said after visiting victims in some of Darfur’s camps.

The deadline for Sudan to comply with the UN resolution ran out last night. Britain has said that it will wait until a UN team delivers its report on the latest situation to Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, today before deciding what action should be taken.

But Mr McNamara said that although there had been improvements in getting humanitarian aid through, many refugees were still living in atrocious conditions. "There is a protection crisis in Darfur today," he said. "We are not able to adequately protect displaced civilians."

He said he saw little chance of refugees going home soon: "This is essentially a very traumatised population ... We do not see any realistic prospects for large-scale returns of displaced people to their home villages in the near future."

Sudan’s foreign minister yesterday said he hoped for a reasonable decision from the security council on Thursday.

Mustafa Osman Ismail said Sudan was concerned about the possibility of sanctions.

"We wish … the relationship with the Security Council will not be the way of confrontation. We hope it will be in the form of cooperation," he said. "We hope the Security Council will come out with a reasonable decision that will help us to continue working together."

Sudan’s ambassador to Britain, Hasan Abdin, said Khartoum had already begun to take action against the militias. "I think it’s unfair to say that nothing has been done," he said. "Yes, there are incidents, but I think what is important is that the process has started and it was very clear from the very beginning … that this [will] take some time, especially for the security issues."

Yesterday, 150 Nigerian troops left for Darfur as part of an AU force in the region. They were to join 155 troops sent by Rwanda to protect African Union representatives monitoring a ceasefire there.