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ATTACKS
IN NORTH DARFUR SPARK RENEWED CONCERN FROM UN, BY CAROLINE PATTON: 06/05/2008
(MaximsNews Network)
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UNITED
NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / - 06
April 2008 --
New air attacks on villages
in Darfur by Sudanese troops have led to even greater concern at the United
Nations about the progress of the conflict and the continued deaths of
noncombatants.
The
attacks took place in Umm Sidir, Ein Bassar and Shegeg Karo in
North Darfur
and both villages and markets were among the areas targeted. On Friday, UN
personnel said that in
North Darfur
there have been “repeated aerial attacks and possible fighting between
government and rebel forces during the course of the last few days.”
So far,
it is known that several people were killed and at least eight civilians wounded
but the actual numbers may be higher. UNICEF has also said that there may be
children among the victims.
UNAMID
Commander General Martin Luther Agwai has called the strikes “unacceptable”
and says that he is disturbed by the continuing increase in casualties among
civilians in
Darfur
. United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan
Ameerah Haq has
told the international community that she is “deeply perturbed by the
reported bombings of a school, water installations and a market where civilians,
especially women and children are present.”
UNAMID,
which brings together United Nations and African Union forces, sent in
helicopters and medical evacuation personnel after the attacks and it reported
yesterday success in evacuating people hurt by the bombing.
Ms.
Haq has asked for entrée for UN personnel to North
Sudan emphasizing that “It is essential that we have immediate
humanitarian access to the affected populations in order to provide humanitarian
assistance and medical evacuation” She
has also joined many other international officials in demanding that the strikes
cease. An inquiry by UNAMID into the attacks is underway.
This is
just the latest in a long string of attacks on civilians in the war-wracked
Sudanese region, which has already driven 2.5 million people from their homes, a
million of them children, and killed over 200,000. The conflict recently marked
its fifth anniversary.
Meanwhile,
the Sudan Consortium, headed by the UN and the World Bank, is meeting in
Oslo
to discuss the situation in
South Sudan
, which is in the process of rebuilding after a 21 year civil war with the
Sudanese federal government that ended in 2005.
United
Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro has called the violence
in Darfur “of grave concern,” while also emphasizing that it is “of
critical importance that the focus on Darfur should not eclipse our work for
peace throughout the rest of
Sudan
.”
--Caroline
Patton
Labels:
United
Nations, U.N.
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