UN, AU condemn Sudan attack
2006-08-01 15:35
Khartoum - The United Nations and the African Union expressed their "disappointment" on Tuesday after an attack launched by the Sudan government against a rebel group in the western region of Darfur.
In a joint statement, the two bodies emphasised that Khartoum should respect the peace deal it signed in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, in May with the largest faction from the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and all other agreements.
They expressed their "utmost concern about the attack launched on 29 July by the government forces, supported by armed militia, on a rebel group non-signatory" to the peace deal in the area of Kulkul in North Darfur.
The statement said top UN envoy Jan Pronk and Baba Gana Kingibe, head of the African Union (AU) mission in Sudan, were "particularly concerned about allegations that a Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) Antonov bombed Hassan village, south of Kulkul".
AU voices 'dismay, disappointment'
It emphasised that if the allegations were confirmed, the Sudanese raid would be a violation of a UN security council resolution passed in 2005, which demanded that the Sudanese government cease offensive military flights.
The UN and AU voiced "dismay and disappointment" that fighting was continuing "in total disregard of the need to guarantee the safety of civilians".
Another branch of the SLM and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement refused to endorse the Abuja agreement, which had so far led to little improvement on the ground.
Up to 300 000 people had been killed and more than two million displaced since the civil war erupted in Darfur in 2003.
The Sudanese government and its proxy Janjaweed militia were accused by Washington of committing genocide in Darfur, where it brutally repressed an uprising by rebels groups demanding a larger share of the country's resources.