afrol News, 3 December - The killing of seven Sudanese aid workers in Sudan's troubled Darfur region has prompted the UN's Special Envoy to the region to write to the UN Security Council, expressing fear about the security and humanitarian situation in the area. Jan Elisason described the killing of the aid workers as the highest monthly casualty since July 2006.

The October displacement has increased the number of this year's displaced population to 280,000.

Since 2003, forces loyal to the government and their allied Janjaweed militia have been involved in fighting with rebel groups in Darfur. This resulted to the killing of over 200,000 and the displacement of 2.2 million people.

"Inter-tribal conflicts over land and water resources continue and persist," Eliasson complained, disclosing an increasing concern of Arab unrest and militancy and a spillover of the conflict in the neighbouring region of Kordofan.

He said the raids of government forces into camps coupled with incidents in and around the camps have led to loss of life, destruction of shelters and violations of human rights. "Recent forced relocation of IDPs in South Darfur is particularly worrisome," Eliasson concurred.

He believed that the region's humanitarian, security and political crisis impacted negatively on the deployment of the UN-AU peacekeeping mission expected to be deployed in early January.

A joint statement issued by Eliasson and the UN under-Secretary General Jean-Marie Guéhenno informed the Security Council about the deployment 140-strong police unit from Bangladesh and 135 engineers from China to boost the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS).

Both official blamed the Sudanese government and rebels for "serious gaps" in the deployment of the AU-UN hybrid force, UNAMID.

"While the African Union and the United Nations would continue to press the parties to make progress in their negotiations, efforts to deploy a capable peacekeeping operation required the Council’s continued engagement, as well as the active support of the government of Sudan,” Guéhenno said, wondering why the hybrid force that will takeover from AMIS still lacked critical mobility capabilities.

Guéhenno blamed Khartoum for its reluctance to accept non-African units as evidenced by its failure to snub UNAMID's list of troop contributors.

However, Sudan's Ambassador to the UN, Abdalmahmood Mohamad, defended that Khartoum had paved way for the deployment of UNAMID.

Meanwhile, Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) had again reiterated their resolve to the continued political crisis. This followed a meeting between President Bachir and Salva Kiir, the 1st Vice President of Sudan and leader of SPLM.

By staff writer

© afrol News

Related pages and feature

Current afrol News Top Stories