Peacekeepers in the western Darfur region of Sudan have been fired upon for the third time in less than a week. An armed Pakistani police unit was the latest to be targeted as it escorted a convoy outside Nyala, capital of south Darfur.
Defenceweb reports that unidentified gunmen exchanged fire with the police for 25 minutes, according to information from the UN/African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, UNAMID. No one was injured in the shooting.
Force communications chief Kemal Saiki said the attackers fled when a force of Nigerian UNAMID soldiers arrived on the scene:
It is a scandal that our forces are being targeted. They are impartial. They take no sides. Once again we are having to emphasise the fact that our forces are in Darfur to try and help bring peace and stability.
Saiki said he did not wish to link this shooting with two other attacks last week in northern Darfur in which five Rwandan peacekeepers were killed. He said:
There have been successive attacks. But it is difficult to jump to conclusions. This one took place in Nyala which is a different area altogether.
So far, 22 UNAMID members have been killed in action while trying to keep the peace in Darfur. The mission, reportedly undermanned, moved to the region in January, 2008.
Both government officials and a former rebel group said two groups of men had been arrested in connection with last week’s incidents. In both cases, they were reported to have been criminals trying to steal vehicles.
The conflict in Darfur exploded when non-Arab rebel groups accused the Sudanese government in Khartoum of neglecting the region and took up arms. Khartoum sent in so-called “Janjaweed” Arab militias to crush the uprising, unleashing violence that led to large parts of the population fleeing to neighbouring Chad.
The US and the EU call the actions genocide, but the Khartoum government rejects this.
Source:digitaljournal.com/a
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