Four stories (updated originally to add the one from the AP; updated further to add the one from AFP; updated still further, on Wednesday, to add the one from IRIN):
From Reuters...
Unidentified gunmen attacked an African Union peacekeeper patrol in the Darfur region of western Sudan on Tuesday, killing one and injuring two, the African Union said.
The attack occurred at Kube Water Point near Sortony in North Darfur, and one of the peacekeepers' vehicles was taken by the attackers.
"In this new barbaric attack, three African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) protection force soldiers were seriously wounded[;] one of the injured soldiers later died as a result of injuries suffered during the attack," the AU said in a statement.
It added that investigations would be carried out to identify the attackers and to determine the circumstances of the attack.
Five African Union peacekeepers were killed near Sudan's border with Chad on April 1 after they also came under attack by gunmen.
AU officials have said [that] their 7,000-strong force is overstretched and under-equipped to police Darfur, a region the size of France where violence has persisted despite a 2006 peace agreement between the government and one rebel faction.
Experts estimate [that] about 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have fled their homes since the Darfur conflict flared in 2003, when rebels took up arms against Sudan's government, charging it with neglect. Khartoum says [that] only 9,000 people have died.
From the AP...
Gunmen ambushed an African Union peacekeeping patrol [on] Tuesday in Darfur, killing one soldier and critically injuring two others, the AU mission said.
The three soldiers, from Rwanda's contingent to the AU mission, were part of a unit patrolling near a water point in the North Darfur sector of Sotorny. An AU car was hijacked during the assault, which took place in a zone controlled by the Sudan Liberation Movement rebels, the AU said.
"But there is no way to confirm whether our soldiers were attacked by the rebels, until the investigation is complete," said Moussa Hamani, an AU spokesman.
He said [that] the two injured peacekeepers were in critical condition, and had been medically evacuated to Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.
Rwanda has sent a contingent of about 1,700 troops to the AU mission, in what the Rwandan president has described as an effort to avoid another genocide in Africa.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur since 2003, when local rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of discrimination toward Darfur's ethnic African tribes.
The International Criminal Court says [that] the government retaliated by arming militias of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed, and has listed 51 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes against a Sudanese cabinet minister and a suspected janjaweed chief.
The AU mission recently has had a spate of casualties and attacks, amid spiraling violence and lawlessness in Darfur. Five AU peacekeepers were slain in an ambush earlier this month, a day after a general acting as the AU's deputy force commander narrowly escaped being gunned down in his helicopter as he was heading to a meeting with rebels.
There are also almost daily reports of vehicles being hijacked, aid workers assaulted and refugees harassed throughout Darfur.
The latest attack brought to 17 the number of peacekeepers killed since the 7,000-strong AU mission began deploying in Darfur in 2004. In December, an AU officer was kidnapped and is thought to be held hostage.
Darfur civilians, especially the 2 million living in refugee camps, have voiced increasing frustration at the ill-equipped and understaffed AU force, which they say does not do enough to protect them. The region's rebels also claim [that] the mission has become biased in favor of the Sudanese government, and cannot be trusted.
Vast sectors of Darfur, a region nearly the size of Texas, are off limits to the peacekeepers. But the Sudanese government opposes a plan by the United Nations to replace them with a 22,000-strong U.N. force.
Meanwhile, Sudan's Foreign Minister Lam Akol said [on] Tuesday [that] his country has agreed on the second phase of a plan to incrementally beef up AU peacekeepers. But disagreement remains over the deployment of combat helicopters, Akol said in a statement in Khartoum at the end of a two-hour meeting between President Omar al-Bashir and South African President Thabo Mbeki.
Akol said the agreement was reached at the AU Peace and Security Council meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The third part of the plan, which deals with deploying a joint AU-U.N. force, also remains in dispute.
Al-Bashir and Mbeki, who arrived in Sudan [on] Tuesday, did not talk to the media after their meeting, but Akol said [that] the two discussed Darfur. He did not elaborate.
Mbeki is set to travel to southern Sudan on Wednesday.
From AFP, reprinted on ReliefWeb...
Gunmen killed an African peacekeeper and wounded two others in an attack on Tuesday in Sudan's troubled western region of Darfur, the African Union said in a statement.
The African Mission in Sudan described the attack, which took place near Sortony in North Darfur state, as "barbaric".
"Investigations into this incident will be carried out, to determine the circumstances under which this attack happened, and to identify the assailants and their motives," it added.
The embattled contingent suffered its worst ever losses on April 1, when five AU troops were killed in northwest Darfur, near the Chadian border.
The latest attack brings to 16 the number of African peacekeepers killed in Darfur since the 7,000-strong contingent started being deployed there in 2004.
From IRIN...
The ongoing violence in Sudan’s Darfur region continued to rise after three soldiers from the African Mission in Sudan (AMIS) were attacked by unidentified armed men on Tuesday near Sortony in North Darfur.
One man was killed, and the other two were wounded in the attack, the third of its kind since the end of March. The three men were part of the Rwandan contingent of the African Union’s (AU) peacekeeping forces.
Tuesday’s death follows the killing of six other AU peacekeepers earlier this month.
A statement issued by AMIS described the killings as a “barbaric attack”, adding that an "investigation into this incident will be carried out, to determine the circumstances under which this attack happened, and to identify the assailants and their motives".
Earlier this month, Alpha Oumar Konaré, chairperson of the AU Commission, condemned the attacks, saying how "deeply shocked and saddened" he was by the series of incidents affecting AMIS. Konaré branded the events as clear violations of the ceasefire agreements currently in place in Darfur.
Elsewhere, the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) has extended its condolences to AMIS and to the victims’ families, and expressed concern about the increasing number of attacks against AMIS or UN personnel.
Aid agencies operating in the region have begun refusing to travel with AU personnel, for fear that the presence of AU peacekeepers will attract violent attacks.
Tuesday’s killing brings the number of AMIS deaths to 17, in addition to numerous casualties and the tens of cars that have been hijacked since AMIS began operations in 2004.
Other violent incidents this year include the deaths of eight AMIS personnel in North, South and West Darfur, as well as an attack on an AMIS helicopter carrying the AMIS Deputy Force Commander and his team.
Other acts of violence in the region include a government raid on an NGO compound in Nyala in January. Twenty people, including NGO workers, UN and AMIS staff, were arrested and abused.
Violence in the region has continued to rise and hostilities towards the 7,000-strong AU protection force are becoming more common. The AU peacekeepers were sent to Darfur in 2004 to protect civilians caught up in warfare between the Sudanese government and rebel groups in Darfur.
So far, AMIS has not been able to contain the fighting in Darfur. A more sizable, better-equipped UN peacekeeping force was proposed for September 2006, but due to Sudanese government opposition, it has not yet been implemented.
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