ADDIS ABABA, 29 January 2005 — Sudanese officials prevented African Union monitors from investigating reports Khartoum had bombed villages in Darfur this week in violation of a cease-fire to deal with rebels, an African Union source said yesterday.
Sources in Sudan’s aid community said on Thursday the government had bombed Al-Malam on the border between North and South Darfur, where the government says rebels killed dozens of people this week. The rebels deny the charges.
“AU observers in Darfur were denied access to investigate the death and damage caused by aerial bombings,” the African Union source, who declined to be named, told Reuters at the organization’s headquarters in Addis Ababa.
The source said there was also a report from AU observers in Darfur that they had heard of bombing in the El-Fasher and Nyala areas this week and that violence in Darfur seemed to be intensifying.
“The Darfur situation is getting very serious. All AU reports indicate that the situation in Darfur has been worsening since the beginning of January,” he said.
The Sudanese government says that although the cease-fire signed last April bans bombing it does not prohibit the government from sending its planes on reconnaissance missions over Darfur.
