UNAMID concerned over escalating violence in Sudan's Darfur

The United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) on Monday expressed concerns over mounting violence in Sudan's Darfur region which has been witnessing a civil war since 2003. "The fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and an armed group on Nov. 9 near Shangil Tobaya in North Darfur was part of a larger pattern of conflict in the area in recent months," said UNAMID in a statement. The escalating violence has become a matter of grave concern to UNAMID, added the statement. UNAMID Acting Joint Special Representative and Joint Chief Mediator Aichatou Mindaoudou said earlier that further violence is a dead end that only harms the people of Darfur. Mindaoudou further urged all sides to cease hostilities immediately, respect international human rights and humanitarian law, and engage fully in the peaceful settlement of the Darfur conflict, according to the statement. The mission disclosed that it has airlifted, upon request, injured combatants from its Rwanbatt team site to El Fasher for treatment without specifying whether the injured combatants belong to the Sudanese army or the rebels. However, the mission defended its move by saying that "the provision of medical assistance to wounded combatants is a core requirement of international humanitarian law, which falls under UNAMID's mandate." Three Darfur rebel groups, namely the Justice and Equality Movement, Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)/Minni Minnawi faction and the SLA/Abdul-Wahid Mohamed Nur faction, have been fighting the central government in Khartoum since 2003. The three groups are rejecting the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), signed in June 2011 between the Sudanese government and the Darfur Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), under the auspices of Qatar.