Armed Men Attack UN Agency Office in Darfur

Author: 
Agencies
Publication Date: 
Wed, 2006-06-14 03:00

GENEVA/ASMARA, 14 June 2006 — The UN refugee agency yesterday said that one of its offices had been attacked in western Darfur and that it feared mounting insecurity in a previously calm part of the war-torn Sudanese region. “We are concerned about the security situation in Habila, in far western Darfur, after an attack by four armed men in military uniform on our field office,” said Jennifer Pagonis, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “Previously, this area has been calm,” said Pagonis.

Details were still sketchy, Pagonis told journalists, adding that it was still not clear who was to blame for the attack which took place late on Monday. The armed men forced their way into the UNHCR compound, shot one guard in the leg, stole communications equipment, demanded money from one of the staff, then left.

The injured guard was treated at another aid organization’s clinic in Habila and was discharged in a stable condition. No other staff members were hurt in the incident. The UNHCR has gradually stepped up its operations in Darfur since the war between rebels and Sudan’s government broke out in the vast western region more than three years ago.

The combined effect of fighting and a dire humanitarian crisis has left up to 300,000 people dead and more than two million displaced. The UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies have repeatedly warned that the fragile security situation is hampering aid efforts.

Meanwhile, a rebel group in the region threatened yesterday to scuttle peace efforts in the country’s troubled east if excluded from planned negotiations. “We do not accept the decision to exclude us from the talks between the Eastern Front and Khartoum,” Khalil Ibrahim, leader of Justice Equality Movement told AFP in Asmara. “Khartoum will not get peace if we don’t participate in the talks,” Ibrahim said, warning that JEM’s presence in the east could not be ignored.

The Sudanese government and the Eastern Front fighters - grouping rebels from the region’s largest ethnic group, the Beja, along with Rashaida Arabs - were set to open talks later yesterday in a bid to end a simmering civil conflict in eastern Sudan. Ibrahim said he had told Eastern Front rebels that they stood to benefit from JEM’s group’s participation in the peace negotiation.

“If we join the Front in the talks they will get more,” he said. “They need experience and political awareness — on the other side, there is a well-trained group from the government.”

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