NYALA, Sudan, 8 March 2005 — A senior United Nations official warned Darfur rebels they could lose all international sympathy if they continue to attack Sudanese police and target aid workers in violation of a cease-fire agreed last year.
Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief coordinator, said during a trip to Sudan the Darfur rebel groups needed to help their people more by reaching a peace deal in African Union-sponsored talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja quickly.
“If you continue attacking commercial trucks and police stations, if you do not release our workers, you will ... lose all international sympathy and all international trust,” he told rebel leaders in the troubled western Darfur region on Sunday.
Three Sudanese working for an international aid agency were kidnapped in December in the Labado area in South Darfur, which was then held by rebels. Rebels deny holding the workers, from Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA). Rebels have abducted aid workers but have released most of them unharmed. The rebels are concerned they are government spies posing as aid workers to gain access to rebel-held territory.
Egeland said any violations of the cease-fire, whether bombing raids by government forces, attacks by Arab militias known locally as Janjaweed, or rebel attacks on police stations and harassment of aid workers, should stop because they hindered humanitarian work in the region.
Meanwhile, according to an aid agency report obtained about 500 women in Darfur have been treated for rape in recent months and most said their attackers were militiamen or soldiers. But the real number of rape victims is likely to be even higher as many are afraid to report the crime for fear of stigmatization and mistreatment, said the study prepared by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
