EU: Darfur needs security, as peacekeeper killed

Security is necessary for development in Sudan's impoverished Darfur, EU envoys said on Wednesday, as a peacekeeper's death near a flashpoint North Darfur village emphasised concerns over recent unrest. "We are concerned about the recent deterioration in security in some parts of Darfur," said Tomas Ulicny, the EU ambassador leading a two-day visit by six other top diplomats to North Darfur state. He spoke during a meeting with local officials including Deputy Governor Al-Fateh Abdel Aziz Abdel Nabi, who said security was improving despite recent "isolated" incidents. As the two sides held talks, over trays of dates and peanuts, a peacekeeper died and three were wounded when they came under fire on their way to the Hashaba area, where the United States says more than 70 civilians died in September from fighting and aerial bombardments between rebels and Sudanese government forces. It was the second deadly ambush this month of peacekeepers from the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). Four Nigerian UNAMID peacekeepers were killed on October 2 in an attack near El-Geneina, in West Darfur state. "One UNAMID peacekeeper died and three others were injured in an ambush" on Wednesday morning, about 10 kilometres (six miles) from Hashaba North in North Darfur, a statement from the mission said late on Wednesday. "UNAMID personnel, who came under a combination of automatic and mortar fire by unidentified assailants, had returned fire." The European Union is one of Sudan's major donors, and Ulicny said the bloc is committed to its assistance, but development needs peace and stability. Recent reports "were not that positive," he said. The Netherlands ambassador, Susan Blankhart, told the meeting that security is also "a very pressing issue of security of people, of IDPs (internally displaced people)." "There's fighting going on at the moment, which doesn't give too much confidence that it's changing," she said, mentioning earlier incidents in North Darfur's Hashaba and Kutum. The EU mission, which also includes ambassadors from Britain, France, Italy, Spain and Sweden, arrived the day after Darfur's top peacekeeper spoke of "an increasing number of security-related incidents in North Darfur, including armed clashes between members of different communities with high civilian casualties." 'Alarming development' It is an "alarming development" which calls for urgent implementation of a government plan to disband armed militias and combat "outlaw groups," Aichatou Mindaoudou of UNAMID said at a meeting in Khartoum. Much of the Darfur unrest now is linked to pro-government Arab groups, which fight among themselves as well as against the regime, humanitarian sources have said. Wednesday's ambush occurred while a UNAMID convoy of military, police and civilian personnel was on its way "to assess the situation following recent reports of violence in that area," UNAMID said. Hashaba is in Kutum district, the scene of unrest since early August when a district chief was shot dead during a carjacking attempt. North Darfur's Mellit town also experienced violence, when several people died in clashes in August but authorities averted a tribal dispute, official media said. In another incident reported on Wednesday, rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said they and factions of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) fought government troops southwest of North Darfur's capital El Fasher. Sudan's army spokesman could not be reached for comment. Deputy Governor Nabi told EU delegates that "we cannot say the crisis in Darfur is over" because insurgent groups, including JEM and SLA, have remained outside a peace deal which the government signed last year with an alliance of rebel splinter factions. "Nonetheless, there is very good improvement in the security situation" compared with its peak in 2004, he said, with incidents limited to Kutum and Mellit. "And they are isolated and they are under control," he said. Ethnic African rebels rose against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government in 2003. In response, the government unleashed state-backed Janjaweed Arab militia in a conflict that shocked the world and led to allegations of genocide. The United Nations estimates at least 300,000 people died, but the government puts the toll at 10,000. An estimated 1.7 million people are still living in camps for the displaced, it says.