Twenty-four stories from throughout the day, some newer than others (updated originally to add the ones from the UK's "Guardian" and the UK's "Independent"; updated further both to reflect a newer version of the first AP story, and to add the one from the UK's "Telegraph"; updated still further to add the one from Nigeria's "This Day"; updated yet again to add the one from the "New York Times"; updated even further to add the one from the UN News Service; updated yet again to reflect a newer version of the "Times" story on the source page; updated one more time, on Monday, to reflect a newer version of the primary BBC story on the source page):
(Earlier versions of many of the wire-service stories are still available; also, note that the story from the UK's "Times" is a semi-feature that describes some other recent incidents. - EJM)
From AFP...
Ten African Union peacekeepers have been killed, and 40 are missing, after their base in Sudan's Darfur region was overrun by gunmen, less than a month before peace talks are due to take place in Libya.
"Ten soldiers were killed, eight [were] wounded, of whom six have been evacuated to Khartoum, and 40 are still missing," African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) spokesman Noureddine Mezni told AFP of the attack on Saturday night on Haskanita base in southern Darfur.
The AU on Sunday described a "sustained attack by a large and organised group of heavily armed men" who broke into the camp with 30 vehicles, forcing AU troops to fight "a defensive battle."
"This is the worst single incident perpetrated against AMIS since the mission began in July 2004, and the first time that an AMIS (base) has been deliberately attacked in this fashion," it said.
The AU declined to speculate on who carried out the attack, or elaborate on the nationalities of those killed. The missing included 36 AU soldiers, three military observers, and a police officer.
Seventeen other peacekeepers who were kidnapped in the raid were later discovered to the south of the base, Mezni said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the killings and called on Darfur's warring sides to recommit to a settlement, citing peace talks slated for Libya on October 27 and preparations for a joint deployment of AU-UN troops.
"The secretary general condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent attack on African Union peacekeepers in Haskanita, South Darfur, and calls for the perpetrators to be held fully accountable for this outrageous act," he said in a statement.
Ban urged all parties "to recommit as a matter of the highest priority to a peaceful resolution to the conflict."
AU-UN joint envoy Rodolphe Adada said [that] he was "appalled by the outrageous and deliberate attack."
AU security chief Said Djinnit said [that] the perpetrators must be punished. "We believe strongly that the group involved should bear the full responsibility of this heinous attack," he said.
The under-equipped African force of around 7,000 troops from 26 countries patrolling Darfur, a region the size of France, is due to begin being replaced later this year by the hybrid 26,000-strong AU-UN force.
Five Senegalese AU peacekeepers were killed in an attack in April.
"Such irresponsible attacks constitute a serious violation to the ceasefire agreement," the new commander of the hybrid force, General Martin Luther Agwai, said, implicitly blaming rebels.
"Rebel groups, who indulge in such random violence and bloodshed, undermine their own credibility on any negotiation table."
Agwai also said [that] it was regrettable that the attack happened ahead of peace talks due in Tripoli later this month in an attempt to broaden a Darfur peace agreement signed by only one rebel faction in May [of] last year.
"Despite the casualties and loss of life, we will persevere in our efforts to keep the fragile peace on the ground while all eyes are set on the negotiation table," he said.
Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said [that] the attack showed the need to deploy the hybrid force, to which Cairo has offered to contribute 2,500 troops, "as quickly as possible."
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said [that] the "callous and destructive act" highlighted the need for "all sides in the conflict to commit to an immediate cessation of hostilities, and to join the political process."
France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said [that] Paris "reaffirms its trust in and support for the African Union in the difficult task [that] it is shouldering in Darfur on behalf of the international community."
The attack came as South African Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu arrived in Khartoum heading a group of statesmen known as The Elders seeking to help peace efforts in Darfur.
The delegation also includes former United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, US ex-president Jimmy Carter, and former South African president Nelson Mandela's wife, Graca Machel.
"This attack shows how desperate the situation is, and how big is the need for peace," Tutu told reporters.
The group is due to meet Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir as well as opposition politicians, community leaders, and people displaced from their homes.
Conflict and famine in Darfur have left at least 200,000 people dead and two million displaced since Khartoum enlisted Janjaweed Arab militia allies to put down an ethnic minority revolt in 2003.
Also from AFP...
South African Nobel peace prize laureate Desmond Tutu arrived in Sudan on Sunday heading a group of statesmen known as The Elders seeking to help peace efforts in the western region of Darfur.
The delegation includes former Cape Town archbishop Tutu, former United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, ex-US president Jimmy Carter, and former South African president Nelson Mandela's wife, Graca Machel.
The mission is the first for The Elders, a group launched by fellow Nobel laureate Mandela in July [in order] to help reduce conflict and despair in the world.
The group is due to meet Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir as well as opposition politicians, local community leaders, and people displaced from their homes, including in the Darfur town of Al-Fasher.
They arrived in Sudan the day after at least 10 African Union peacekeepers were killed in the bloodiest attack yet on their three-year-old mission in the war-ravaged region of Darfur, where Washington says genocide is taking place.
"This attack shows how desperate the situation is, and how big is the need for peace," Tutu told reporters.
"We are here in Sudan because we want to listen to the voices of those who have not been heard, and want to explore ways that we can lend our own voices to peace."
Conflict in Darfur, combined with the effects of famine, has left at least 200,000 people dead and two million displaced since Khartoum enlisted Janjaweed Arab militia allies to put down an ethnic-minority revolt in 2003.
Sudanese authorities say [that] only 9,000 people have died.
Also from AFP...
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Sunday strongly condemned the killing of at least 10 African Union peacekeepers in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region.
"The secretary general condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent attack on African Union peacekeepers in Haskanita, South Darfur," said a statement issued by his press office.
Ban "calls for the perpetrators to be held fully accountable for this outrageous act", it said, urging the warring sides to recommit themselves to a peaceful settlement.
From CNN...
A group of rebels stormed an African Union peacekeeping base in Sudan's Darfur region, killing 10 personnel from the AU mission and wounding several more, a U.N. spokeswoman said [on] Sunday.
The deadliest attack in the AU's three-year mission happened overnight, injuring at least eight people and leaving some 25 AU peacekeepers missing, said AU spokesman Assane Ba.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms" in a statement [on] Sunday. He urged all parties to "recommit" to a peaceful resolution to the conflict and to prepare for peace talks in Libya in October.
AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Said Djinnit said [on] Sunday that the attack occurred in the Haskanita area of Darfur.
AU officers told The Associated Press [that] the attackers were 1,000 rebels from the Sudan Liberation Army.
Although it was "too early to say who launched the attack," Djinnit said [that] initial indications show [that] the perpetrators were affiliated with one of the many rebel groups that did not sign an AU-brokered peace agreement in May 2006. [...]
Only one rebel group signed the peace agreement, and it has done little to stop the fighting between government-backed militias and rebel groups, which the United Nations estimates has killed more than 200,000 people and driven about 2 million from their homes in the past four years.
"We are of the strong opinion here that once identified, those responsible for this attack should bear all consequences," Djinnit said. "There must be some political and legal consequences from this deliberate attack."
A senior AU officer told [the] AP, "There is a war going on between the rebels and the government, and the AU is crunched in the middle."
On April 1, five Senegalese AU peacekeepers were killed by unidentified gunmen in Umbaro, in northwestern Darfur near the border with Chad.
A day earlier, a helicopter carrying Brig. Gen. Ephreim Rurangwa, a commander with the African Union Mission in Sudan, and his entourage were "clearly targeted" in a shooting, the AU said.
Five bullet holes were found on the helicopter, but no one was injured in the attack, which the AU called an attempted assassination.
About two months ago the U.N. Security Council authorized a 26,000-member peacekeeping mission in Darfur, more than tripling the AU-led force there.
The "hybrid" force of U.N. and AU troops and police -- which will be under AU command -- is scheduled to take over for the current force by the end of the year, according to the United Nations.
The peacekeeping force, which will be known as UNAMID, will be the world's largest peacekeeping operation, according to the United Nations.
The current AU force of about 7,000 has been unable to stop the violence, and Sudan agreed to allow a bigger peacekeeping force after massive international pressure.
Ban and Sudan's foreign minister have invited Darfur's rebel groups to join peace talks with the Sudanese government on October 27 in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
From VOA...
The African Union says [that] at least 10 of its soldiers have been killed in an attack on an AU peacekeeping base in Sudan's Darfur region.
An African Union statement [on] Sunday said [that] 50 other people are missing following a sustained assault on the Haskanita base in southern Darfur late Saturday.
An AU spokesman, Nourreddine Mezni, says [that] the killings represent the AU's "heaviest loss of life" in Darfur since the peacekeepers were deployed in 2004. He said [that] seven other soldiers were wounded in the attack.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but AU military officers are blaming Darfur rebels.
Rebel commanders acknowledge [that] their forces have been fighting Sudanese government troops near Haskanita in recent days.
AU. officials condemned the attack, calling [them] a violation of a ceasefire agreement signed last year.
That ceasefire, signed by one faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army, has had little effect on stopping the violence in Darfur.
The western Sudanese region has endured more than four years of fighting between rebel groups, militias, and the Sudanese government. The violence has killed an estimated 200,000 people and [has] driven more than two million others from their homes.
The overwhelmed AU peacekeeping force of 7,000 is due to be strengthened next year by the arrival of 19,000 more troops and police operating under joint U.N. and AU oversight.
Meanwhile, a group of so-called elders led by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu is due to arrive in Sudan [on] Sunday with the goal of assisting Darfur peace efforts. The group includes former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.
Peace talks between the various rebel groups and the Sudanese government are scheduled to begin in Tripoli, Libya, on October 27.
From Al Jazeera...
Armed men have attacked an African Union base in southern Darfur, killing at least 10 soldiers and injuring seven others, the AU said.
The Sudanese army and Darfur's rebel groups blamed each other for the attack on Saturday night on the Haskanita base, the worst strike on AU troops since they deployed in 2004.
Noureddine Mezni, an AU spokesman, said: "It is the heaviest casualties which we have ever witnessed since the inception of this mission. There is a feeling of shock."
An army spokesman said: "Some of the rebels attacked the AU in Haskanita."
But Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr, commander of the armed opposition group Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), told Reuters news agency that they had moved their troops out of Haskanita four days earlier for other operations, and blamed the attack on the government.
"There was an aggression from Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) from three directions on Haskanita, and that attack was from the SAF," Ashr said. "We don't have troops there."
Haskanita, in the far southeast of Darfur, has seen government bombardment and heavy fighting between the army, militias, and rebels.
From the BBC...
An attack on an African Union army base in the Sudanese region of Darfur has killed at least 10 peacekeepers.
Thirty vehicles overran the base, and 50 AU soldiers were missing and seven [were] seriously injured. Vehicles and property were looted or vandalised.
Rebel sources told the BBC that the raiders were members of breakaway factions from two rebel groups.
The attack came as [South] African Archbishop Desmond Tutu arrived in Sudan bringing a new peace initiative for Darfur.
The casualties were the most serious suffered by the AU mission since it arrived in 2003, an AU statement said.
AU-UN Joint Special Representative Rodolphe Adada said [that] he was profoundly shocked and appalled by the "outrageous and deliberate" attack, which happened on Saturday evening at a base in Haskanita town.
BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says [that] the fighting comes at a particularly unfortunate moment, with discussions about to take place between the AU and [the] UN to pave the way for peace talks between government and rebels.
Prospects of an agreement at the talks are starting to look bleak, he says.
'Unconscionable crime'
A spokesman for the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) condemned the attack, saying [that] it was carried out by three dissident commanders from his own movement, in conjunction with one of the groups that broke from the Sudan Liberation Army.
"It's a group which has been expelled," Ibrahim Jalil said.
"They're looking for equipment - vehicles and weapons. They couldn't get these within JEM, and they don't have the capability to fight government forces. They found the AU [to be] an easy target."
Sources told the BBC that the attackers made off with all the weapons and vehicles [that] they were able to take, and burned the vehicles that remained.
The AU statement described the attackers as "a large and organised group of heavily armed men", but did not say whether they were rebels or government troops.
"It is staggering to imagine what could possibly have been the intentions of those who perpetrated this wanton and unprovoked act," Mr Adada said.
"Not only was it a flagrant violation of the ceasefire, but [also] an unconscionable crime that breaks every convention and norm of international peacekeeping."
Mission to Sudan
About 7,000 African Union troops are deployed in Darfur on a limited mandate.
The UN Security Council has approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force to expand the current AU force, which has been struggling to protect civilians.
On Sunday Archbishop Tutu arrived in Khartoum - in the latest initiative to bring peace to Darfur.
The archbishop is leading a delegation of "elders" that includes former UN envoy to Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi, US ex-President Jimmy Carter, and Graca Machel, a children's-rights advocate and the wife of Nelson Mandela.
The group came together at Mr Mandela's invitation to find ways to tackle some of the world's toughest problems, such as HIV/Aids, poverty and conflict.
Commenting on the attack on the AU, Mr Tutu said: "It just shows how desperate the situation is, how desperately we've got to find a peaceful solution, so that incidents of that kind don't happen."
The BBC's Amber Henshaw in Khartoum says [that] it is no coincidence that Darfur is the focus of the group's first mission.
At least 200,000 people have died and some 2 [million] have been forced from their homes during the four-year conflict.
The delegation will meet President Omar al-Bashir and others in Khartoum before travelling to Juba, capital of southern Sudan.
They will then travel to Darfur, where they will meet community leaders and displaced people living in camps.
A related analysis feature by the BBC's Martin Plaut...
Exactly who carried out the raid on the African Union base in Haskanita is unclear, but there are suggestions that it was a group called SLA-Unity.
The tragedy of Darfur began to unfold in February 2003, when rebels rose up against the government, claiming [that] the region had been neglected by Khartoum.
But the rebels failed to maintain their unity of purpose.
Their movement gradually fragmented. Today there are about 17 different groupings claiming to fight for the people of Darfur.
Whichever group it was, the fighting comes at a particularly unfortunate moment.
Discussions are due to begin in Ethiopia between the African Union and the United Nations.
These are designed to pave the way for peace talks between the government and the rebels in Libya on 27 October.
Diplomats believe that the current incident may be a show of strength by some rebels prior to those talks.
They point out that much the same thing took place before the last peace talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, in May [of] last year.
But with a number of rebel movements now refusing to attend next month's peace talks in Libya, and the current upsurge of fighting, the prospects for reaching an agreement are beginning to look bleak.
An "International Herald Tribune" composite story (based on AP and Reuters content)...
Rebel forces stormed a small African Union base in northern Darfur and killed 10 peacekeepers in an unprecedented attack on the beleaguered mission that threatened peace talks set for October.
Several others were wounded and dozens were missing after about 1,000 rebels attacked the base in Haskanita late [on] Saturday and eventually stormed it early [on] Sunday, AU peacekeepers in Haskanita said.
The remaining AU peacekeepers were evacuated from the base under the protection of the Sudanese Army, which drove the rebels from the area. Some government troops could be seen plundering goods from the burned-out camp as an AU armored vehicle lay smoldering nearby.
"This is the heaviest loss of life and the biggest attack on the African Union mission," said an AU spokesman, Noureddine Mezni. The peacekeepers were first sent to the region in 2004. "Our troops fought a defensive battle to protect the camp, but 30 vehicles eventually stormed it," the spokesman said, adding that the camp was "completely destroyed."
News of the violence drew swift and widespread condemnation.
"Not only was it a flagrant violation of the cease-fire but an unconscionable crime that breaks every convention and norm of international peacekeeping," said Rodolphe Adada, the political head of a joint United Nations-African Union mission that is due to replace the AU forces.
The Sudanese Army and rebel movements in Darfur initially blamed each other for the assault on the Haskanita base in southeastern Darfur.
But a rebel source said [that] the attack had been carried out by breakaway rebel forces who wanted a seat at peace talks that are scheduled to begin on Oct. 27 in Libya.
The Darfur situation had been expected to improve after the UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, visited Sudan early in September and announced new negotiations with President Omar al-Bashir to settle the conflict, in which at least 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced.
Bashir later announced a cease-fire during a visit to Rome, but violence increased in the ensuing weeks, with each side trying to improve its position before the peace talks, scheduled to be held in late October in Libya.
Darfur rebels also have grown increasingly hostile to the AU peacekeepers, asserting that the force is not neutral but favors the government side.
The raid represented the first time since the 7,000-strong AU mission was deployed in June 2004 that one of its bases had been overrun, although soldiers have been attacked regularly.
Several ambushes of AU forces in the past year have been blamed on the rebels.
"There is a war going on between the rebels and the government, and the African Union is crunched in the middle," said a senior AU officer who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
A rebel said [that] the attack had been carried out by breakaway members of the Justice and Equality Movement who were trying to obtain vehicles, weapons, and power, and [to] gain an invitation to the talks.
He blamed the movement's former vice president, Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, and its former military chief, Abdallah Banda.
Another rebel said [that] the attackers had been cooperating with Sudan Liberation Army Unity in the area.
Abu Bakr Kadu, a commander of Sudan Liberation Army Unity, denied that his group had been responsible. The commander said [that] members of the group had been fighting government forces in Haskanita all day [on] Saturday, until sunset.
"Maybe the AU was caught in the middle of the bombardment during our battles with the government," he said. "The government has been moving using the AU as cover, and they are still inside Haskanita near the AU base."
About 130 AU peacekeepers from Nigeria had been stationed at the Haskanita base, but they had been grounded since June because of the insecurity in the area. More than a third of the troops were unaccounted for late [on] Sunday, said AU officials in Sudan.
Speaking in Ethiopia, the AU's top peace and security official, Said Djinnit, said [that] 10 peacekeepers were killed in the attack, 10 were wounded, and about 30 were missing.
It was not immediately clear why there was a discrepancy between the number of missing peacekeepers.
"Some fled on foot and by car and have called us," said an AU officer in Haskanita, who declined to give his name because he is not authorized to speak to the media. "But we're very worried for some of them."
The latest violence to threaten the fragile peace process in Darfur came as a group of international negotiators was due in Sudan on Sunday to try to resolve the conflict and the growing tensions across southern Sudan.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa; Jimmy Carter, the former U.S. president; Graça Machel, a rights activist; and Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran peace mediator - accompanied by the British businessman Richard Branson - were expected [on] Sunday in Sudan for the start of a trip that would take them to Darfur and the southern capital, Juba.
Washington calls the conflict ["]genocide["], a term [that] the government in Khartoum rejects and [that] many European governments are reluctant to use. Bashir, the Sudanese president, puts the death toll at 9,000.
A joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force with 26,000 police officers and soldiers is to be deployed next year to absorb the AU's 7,000 peacekeepers, who, lacking equipment and experience, have struggled to defend even themselves against attack.
The Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said [that] the attack on the AU base [on] Saturday had confirmed "the need to send the African and the UN hybrid force as soon as possible," the Egyptian state press agency reported.
In a related development, European Union defense ministers have assembled a 2,000-strong force to help protect Darfur refugees in Chad and the Central African Republic, officials said.
"We're at roughly 2,000," the French defense minister, Hervé Morin, said of EU members' commitments to the UN-mandated force.
About 1,500 of those promised troops are French, he said.
By Rob Crilly of the UK's "Times"...
A weekend of heavy fighting greeted Nelson Mandela’s band of roving diplomats, world leaders, and entrepreneurs – The Elders – who arrived in Sudan yesterday [Sunday] in the latest attempt to bring peace to Darfur.
Militias attacked an African Union base in the town of Haskanita on Saturday, killing 10 peacekeepers, the heaviest casualties suffered by the AU mission. Fifty peacekeepers were still missing.
Hours later, a government Antonov plane resumed bombing, attacking a rebel town in northern Darfur, despite promises of a ceasefire.
Although Mr Mandela is too frail to travel, Jimmy Carter, the former US president, Desmond Tutu, Nobel laureate, and Sir Richard Branson are among the team due to visit Darfur later this week.
They will also meet the Sudanese President, aid groups, and diplomats in Khartoum in an attempt to ease the deployment of a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force and lay the groundwork for peace talks in Tripoli later this month.
But they will find a conflict that is rapidly spiralling into anarchy. Aid agencies say [that] they will be forced to withdraw, if security does not improve.
Several rebel factions have said [that] they will not attend next month’s talks unless the joint United Nations and African Union force is deployed first.
Commander Ibrahim Abdullah Al “Hello”, who holds the tiny village of En Siro for his branch of the Sudan Liberation Army, claimed [that] the Government was pouring arms into Janjawid encampments in northern Darfur.
He said [that] his leader, Abdulwahid Mohamed el-Nur – who commands huge support among civilians in Darfur’s aid camps – would not be attending the talks.
“If he goes to Libya without peace, then we will still be here, we will still be fighting,” he said sitting on a lopsided bench in the village’s disused school hut. “The root of the problem is still here - the insecurity.”
An AU force of some 7,000 soldiers and monitors has failed to bring peace to Darfur. It has found itself outgunned by rebels and the government’s proxy army of Janjawid militias.
Rebel and government spokesmen accused each other of Saturday’s attack on the AU. In the past, rebels have more often been responsible for taking on the AU.
Hours later, rebel targets around the town of Kuma in northern Darfur were bombed, according to aid workers and SLA commanders in the area.
Earlier this year, the Khartoum government, under intense international pressure, agreed to allow a joint UN-AU force into its war-torn western-region. It has also agreed to attend peace talks in the Libyan capital beginning on October 27.
President Omar al-Bashir has told both Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, and Pope Benedict that he will declare a ceasefire before negotiations. Doubts remain, however, about his commitment to the process.
Bombing of rebel and civilian targets resumed in September, after the annual rains. Government Antonovs have been spotted overflying En Siro’s tumbledown mud huts earlier in the day.
Days before my visit, an Antonov had bombed rebel-held villages elsewhere in northern Darfur, in an attack confirmed by African Union monitors.
At the same time, a rising tide of insecurity and lawlessness is hampering aid operations in Darfur. En Siro, like many other villages, is cut off from emergency supplies of food and medicine.
Aid agencies can make only fleeting visits by helicopter, as the roads are too dangerous.
Carjackings have become a daily occurrence throughout Darfur. Last week, World Vision withdrew all non-essential workers after three members of staff were shot during an attack on an aid convoy.
The head of Oxfam in Sudan, Caroline Nursey, said [that] the charity would consider pulling out altogether, if security worsened.
There is little chance of security improving before peace talks, according to analysts.
“Every time [that] we have had talks before, it has been preceded by a build-up of government and rebel activity,” said a United Nations official in Darfur. “We see no reason why this wouldn’t be the case again.”
From Radio New Zealand...
A group of statesmen known as The Elders arrived in Sudan on Sunday, seeking to help peace efforts in the western region of Darfur.
The delegation includes former Cape Town archbishop and Nobel peace prize laureate Desmond Tutu, former United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, ex-US president Jimmy Carter, and former South African president Nelson Mandela's wife, Graca Machel.
The mission is their first. The Elders is a group launched by Nelson Mandela in July [in order] to help reduce conflict and despair in the world.
They arrived in Sudan a day after at least 10 African Union peacekeepers were killed in an attack on their base. About 50 are still missing.
Rebel sources told the BBC that the raiders were members of breakaway factions from two rebel groups. Thirty vehicles overran the base.
About 7000 African Union troops are deployed in Darfur on a limited mandate. An AU statement said [that] the casualties were the most serious suffered by the mission since it arrived in 2003.
The UN Security Council has approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force to expand the current AU force.
Conflict in Darfur, combined with the effects of famine, has left at least 200,000 people dead and two million displaced since 2003. Sudan says [that] only 9,000 people have died.
Also from Radio New Zealand...
The African Union says [that] at least 10 peacekeeping troops have been killed in an attack on one of its bases in the Sudanese region of Darfur.
About 50 soldiers are still missing.
The government and rebel troops blame each other for the attack, which reportedly involved hundreds of armed men.
About 7000 African Union troops are deployed in Darfur on a limited mandate.
The UN Security Council has approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force to expand the current AU force, which has been struggling to protect civilians.
From Panapress...
The French [minister] of foreign affairs, Bernard Kouchner, on Sunday bitterly condemned the attack perpetrated [on] Saturday against a camp of the African Union's peacekeeping force (AMIS) in Darfur, Sudan's crisis-prone western region.
In a communiqué released in Paris, France deems as unacceptable the armed attack against the camp of Haskanita leaving ten persons killed, seven others seriously wounded, and nearly 50 AMIS soldiers reported as missing.
"France reaffirms its confidence in and support to the African Union, in its current difficult [role] in Darfur in the name of the international community," said Quai d'Orsay, which insists that the perpetrators of the armed attack should be found and punished.
Paris also calls on "the Sudanese parties to exercise restraint in the prospect for the opening of negotiations in Tripoli, Libya, in October, and the forthcoming deployment of the hybrid force (UN/AU) in Darfur, under UN Security Council resolution 1769".
Some 7,000 soldiers coming from 26 African countries are deployed in Darfur, caught in bloody fighting between rebel factions and troops loyal to regime in Khartoum since February 2003.
Casualties from Saturday's attack in Haskanita [push] to 27 the number of African soldiers killed in Darfur.
By the AP's Alfred de Montesquiou...
Rebel forces stormed a small African Union base in northern Darfur and killed at least 10 peacekeepers, leaving behind charred armored vehicles and bombed-out barracks in an unprecedented attack on the beleaguered mission that threatened upcoming peace talks.
More than 30 peacekeepers were still missing by late Sunday, indicating [that] the death toll from the attack could rise significantly.
About 1,000 rebels from the Sudan Liberation Army attacked the base outside the town of Haskanita [on] Saturday after sunset, when Muslims break their daytime fast for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, AU officers told The Associated Press [on] Sunday at the scene of the attack. The rebels eventually stormed the base early [on] Sunday, they said.
"We battled for hours, but when we ran out of ammunition, we took refuge in this ditch," said a Nigerian peacekeeper who would only give his first name, Aboubakar, because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He showed a corner of the camp riddled with bullet marks and mortar holes where the AU troops mounted their resistance.
Some of the surviving peacekeepers appeared shellshocked, and said [that] it was difficult to describe the intensity of the onslaught.
The rebels used armored vehicles and rocket-propelled grenades, an indication that they are more heavily armed than previously believed, peacekeepers said.
The AU troops said [that] they initially repelled the assailants. But the rebels eventually overran the camp at around 4 a.m., peacekeepers said as they recovered from the fighting.
The Sudanese army routed the rebels early [on] Sunday, and the remaining AU peacekeepers were evacuated under the protection of the army. By afternoon, some government troops could be seen plundering goods from the burned-out camp, as an AU armored vehicle smoldered nearby.
Rebels looted several AU armored vehicles and jeeps, and took a large amount of ammunition from the base before the Sudanese army drove them out, AU soldiers said.
"This is the heaviest loss of life and the biggest attack on the African Union mission," said AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni. "Our troops fought a defensive battle to protect the camp, but 30 vehicles eventually stormed it. ... The camp is completely destroyed."
At least 200,000 people have been killed in more than four years of conflict in Darfur, a region of western Sudan. The government is accused of unleashing Arab militias known as the janjaweed to fight ethnic African rebels. The janjaweed are accused of the worst atrocities of the conflict, including rape and mass killings of innocent civilians.
Darfur rebels also have grown increasingly hostile to the AU peacekeepers, saying [that] the force is not neutral and favors the government side. Several ambushes of AU forces in the past year have been blamed on the rebels.
But Saturday's raid was the first time since the AU mission was deployed in June 2004 that one of its bases has been overrun, though soldiers have been regularly attacked. There are about 6,000 AU peacekeepers in the region currently.
The announcement that new peace talks to solve the conflict will open on Oct. 27 in Libya has sparked a flurry of fighting between rebels and Sudanese government forces, as each try to improve their position ahead of the conference.
The attack came as rebels appeared to flee the area around Haskanita because of a large government offensive there over the past two weeks, AU soldiers said.
AU officers said [that] they had observed several Sudanese helicopter gunships and MiG-19 fighter jets taking off for the Haskanita area early [on] Sunday from their base in southern Darfur. U.N. resolutions forbid all military flights over Darfur.
By midday [on] Sunday, plumes of smokes from several burning villages in the same area could be seen rising into the air. Forces from the Arab-dominated government have been accused of indiscriminately targeting ethnic African Darfur villagers on suspicions [that] they support the rebels.
About 150 peacekeepers, most from Nigeria, had been stationed at the Haskanita base, but they had been grounded since June because of the insecurity in the area.
"This is a terrible incident. We're still trying to understand what happened," said Gen. Martin Agwai, the AU force commander, as he inspected the destroyed base.
As the last AU peacekeepers evacuated the camp late [on] Sunday, Sudanese-government troops and militias could be seen patrolling the area. Other government troops were sifting through the camp's debris amid the burning tents and a smoldering AU armored vehicle. Some soldiers carried away mattresses, fans, and other gear.
"It may not be the right political thing to say, but the government forces saved us," said an AU officer, who also asked not to be named because of military regulations.
Speaking in Ethiopia, the AU's top peace-and-security official, Said Djinnit, said [that] 10 peacekeepers were killed in the attack. AU officers said [that] the dead included a police officer from Senegal, two military observers from Botswana and Mali, and seven soldiers from Nigeria. At least seven peacekeepers were wounded.
"Some fled on foot and by car and have called us," said an AU officer in Haskanita, who declined to give his name because he is not authorized to speak to the media. "But we're very worried for some of them."
The U.N., [the] AU, France, and Britain all strongly condemned the attack [on] Sunday.
The Sudanese army also deplored the attack, saying [that] it offered protection to the evacuating peacekeepers. Despite a few sporadic gunshots, the army appeared in control of the area [on] Sunday.
The Darfur situation had been expected to improve after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Sudan early in September and announced new negotiations with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to settle the conflict.
Al-Bashir announced a cease-fire earlier this month, but violence increased in the ensuing weeks.
The underfunded AU force has been unable to stem the fighting in Darfur, and will soon be merged into a much-more-powerful AU-U.N. joint force.
Rebel commanders told AP a few days earlier that they had been involved in heavy battles against government-allied forces in the Haskanita area for the past two weeks.
"The government has massed five or six janjaweed units who are converging on us," said Abdelaziz Ushar, a commander in the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, which fights alongside the SLA.
JEM rebels said [that] they had evacuated Haskanita a couple of days ago, and AU peacekeepers in the camp said [that] they suspected [that] a splinter faction known as SLA-Unity had conducted the raid.
JEM strongly condemned the attack.
"JEM is not certain about the exact culprits in this senseless attack," the group said. There was no comment from SLA-Unity.
Also from the AP...
A group of international peacemaking leaders led by Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu arrived in Sudan on Sunday as part of a mission to listen to the people affected by the violent conflict in Darfur and [to] see how they can lend their support.
Tutu chairs the council of world peacemakers and Nobel laureates known as The Elders, which was launched by former South African President Nelson Mandela. The group's first mission is Sudan, and the delegation that arrived in Khartoum included former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Lakhdar Brahimi, a former U.N. envoy to Iraq.
"We, The Elders, are here because we care deeply for the fate of our planet, and we feel intensely for the suffering of millions of people in Darfur who yearn for nothing more than peace and dignity," Tutu told a reporters at a hotel in Khartoum.
He said [that] the goal of the group is to listen, learn, and report on the views of the people of Darfur and others concerned with the crisis.
Tutu's delegation, which is scheduled to be in Sudan until Friday, will meet government and opposition leaders and representatives from international organization representatives in Khartoum. It also plans to travel to southern Sudan and to Darfur [in order] to visit local community leaders and displaced people.
More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.5 million have been displaced in more than four years of fighting between rebel groups and government-backed militias.
Ten African Union peacekeepers were killed in an attack by rebel forces who overran their base in northern Darfur over the weekend. Several others were wounded and dozens remain missing in the unprecedented violence.
In a statement issued after his news conference, Tutu said [that] the attack on the AU peacekeepers shows "how desperate the situation is."
The Elders was launched to celebrate Mandela's 89th birthday in July, and is dedicated to finding new ways to foster peace and resolve global crises, and to support the next generation of leaders.
The brainchild of British entrepreneur Richard Branson and musician Peter Gabriel, its members include former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan; former Irish President Mary Robinson; and Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, the pioneering micro-credit institution.
From Radio Australia...
The African Union says [that] unidentified rebels have killed a number of its peacekeepers in the Sudanese region of Darfur.
The AU base in Haskanita [town] was raided on Saturday night by armed men who stole equipment and vehicles.
Ten African Union soldiers were killed and another seven [were] wounded.
Fifty soldiers are said to still be missing, with the exact number of casualties on both sides yet to be confirmed.
A full investigation is [under way] into the worst single attack on the African Union force since it started its mission in the war-torn region three years ago.
From DPA...
At least a dozen soldiers with the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in Sudan's crisis-stricken Darfur were killed in an attack on an AU base, according to media reports [on] Sunday.
The number of victims might be higher, as 50 AU soldiers were still missing, the BBC reported.
Another 25 soldiers were wounded in the attack, the worst loss experienced by the peacekeepers since their deployment in 2003.
It was not clear who was responsible for the attack, an AU spokesman told the BBC, adding that both the Sudanese government and rebel troops accused each other of the incident.
According to witnesses, around 2,000 rebel fighters attacked the Haskanita camp in southern Darfur, plundered all the arms and vehicles [that] they could take, and set fire to the remaining vehicles.
The chair of the AU Ceasefire Commission, General Martin Luther Agwai, sharply denounced the attack in a statement published [on] Sunday.
"Rebel groups, who indulge in such random violence and bloodshed, undermine their own credibility on any negotiation table," he said.
It was even more regrettable that such actions were taking place only weeks before the convening of the Tripoli [peace talks], he added.
The attack took place shortly before the planned arrival of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Sudan.
Tutu and a team of dignitaries including former US president Jimmy Carter and Graca Machel, the wife of South African former president Nelson Mandela, are to make peace proposals.
At least 200,000 people have been killed and millions [have been] driven from their villages in the conflict between the government and rebels in Darfur since 2003.
The AU peace-keeping mission began in 2003.
In the coming year, a 26,000-strong UN peacekeeping force is due to join the 7,000 AU troops in attempts to bring stability to Darfur.
By Reuters' Opheera McDoom...
Ten African Union soldiers were killed and dozens were missing after armed men launched an assault on an AU base in Darfur, the worst attack on AU troops since they deployed in Sudan's violent west in 2004.
The AU called it a "deliberate and sustained" assault by some 30 vehicles, which overran and looted the peacekeepers' camp on Saturday night.
Sudan's army blamed Darfur rebels for the strike on the Haskanita base, which was mainly manned by Nigerian soldiers and military observers from other nationalities.
One rebel commander said [that] the raid was carried out by breakaway rebel forces who wanted vehicles, weapons, and a seat at peace talks due to begin on Oct. 27 in Libya.
"The death toll is still 10, but we have eight injured and 40 still missing," said AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni.
"Our camp is completely destroyed," Mezni said, adding [that] it was the heaviest casualties suffered since the AU mission deployed. The total number of soldiers at the site was 157.
About 17 soldiers were found wandering near another AU base in the area.
News of the violence drew swift and widespread condemnation.
"The secretary-general condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent attack on African Union peacekeepers in Haskanita, South Darfur, and calls for the perpetrators to be held fully accountable for this outrageous act," the U.N. said in a statement.
The commander of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel group, Abdel Azizel-Nur Ashr, said [that] the attack was by breakaway JEM rebels.
He blamed JEM's sacked Vice President Bahr Idriss Abu Garda and former military chief Abdallah Banda, working with some members from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) Unity faction.
An alliance between JEM and the SLA Unity faction have become the largest military threat to Khartoum in recent months.
Abu Bakr Kadu, an SLA Unity commander, denied [that] they were responsible, but said [that] they had been fighting with government forces in Haskanita all day on Saturday, until sunset.
"Maybe the AU was caught in the middle of the bombardment during our battles with the government. The government has been moving using the AU as cover, and they are still inside Haskanita near the AU base," he said.
The AU said [that] the attack began at 7.30 p.m. local time (1630 GMT) on Saturday, after sunset.
SLA founder Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur also condemned the attack, but said [that] it underlined the need for non-African troops to also be deployed in the joint U.N.-AU force. "The AU came to help us, so they should not be attacked," he said. "But this does show that the AU has no military capabilities."
ELDERS
The latest violence to threaten Darfur's fragile peace process came as a group of international "elders" -- including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter -- was due in Sudan on Sunday to help resolve the Darfur's problems and tensions in southern Sudan.
Tutu said [that] they chose to first visit Darfur because of the "urgency of the conflict and immense human suffering."
"We want to find ways to contribute to the peace process," he told reporters in Khartoum.
But Brahimi said [that] they had no new set initative to resolve the problem, entering its fifth year.
International experts estimate [that] some 200,000 people have died in Darfur, with 2.5 million driven from their homes. Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing central government of neglect.
Washington calls the conflict ["]genocide["], a [that] term Khartoum rejects and [that] European governments are reluctant to use. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir puts the death toll at 9,000.
The joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping force with 26,000 police and soldiers is due to deploy next year to absorb the AU's 7,000 peacekeepers who, lacking equipment and experience, have struggled to defend even themselves against attack.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said [that] the raid "confirms the need to send the African and the U.N. hybrid force (to Darfur) as soon as possible."
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner condemned the attack as a "murderous and unacceptable act."
By Xan Rice of the UK's "Guardian"...
Hundreds of rebels overran an African Union camp in Darfur, killing at least 10 soldiers and leaving 50 more unaccounted for, in the deadliest assault since the peacekeeping mission began three years ago. The attack in Haskanita, near the border of north and south Darfur, completely destroyed the base. Seven peacekeepers were injured.
"There is a great feeling of shock here," said Noureddine Mezni, a spokesman for the AU mission in Sudan, in a telephone interview from Khartoum. "These were people helping the local population." He said [that] several AU teams were trying to find the 50 missing peacekeepers. "We cannot track them now ... maybe we will find them later," he said.
The attack drew immediate international condemnation, with the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, calling it "a murderous and unacceptable act".
Haskanita has seen heavy recent fighting between government forces and rebel militias from the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army Unity faction, which have accused Khartoum of trying to grab land ahead of scheduled peace talks in Libya this month [October], and before the deployment of a new, vastly beefed-up peacekeeping mission.
The motive for Saturday night's attack remains unclear. But the rebels have made no secret of their contempt for the 7,000 AU troops based in the region, accusing them of failing to protect civilians.
Officially, the African Union has only described the attackers, who arrived at the peacekeepers' base in about 30 vehicles, as "armed men". But the leader of a new "hybrid" AU-UN mission to Darfur fingered rebels for blame. "Rebel groups, who indulge in such random violence and bloodshed, undermine their credibility on any negotiation table," said General Martin Luther Agwai, who will lead the 26,000-strong force that is due to replace the AU mission before the end of the year.
A spokesman for the rebel JEM denied that its troops were involved. An SLA Unity commander told the Reuters news agency that fierce fighting between the government and rebels had occurred in Haskanita earlier in the day. "Maybe the AU was caught in the middle of the bombardment during our battles with the government," said Abu Bakr Kadu. "The government has been moving, using the AU as cover, and they are still near the AU base."
The attack will increase pressure on the Sudanese government to facilitate the rapid deployment of the expanded peacekeeping force. In the past, Khartoum has made it difficult for the AU to scale up its operations. With all sides ignoring numerous ceasefire agreements, the peacekeepers' role has largely been reduced to that of bystanders, often confined to their bases. Since January, at least 118 aid vehicles have been hijacked, and insecurity has worsened across the Darfur region.
Jan Egeland, the former UN relief coordinator, said [last week] that the AU-UN force must be prepared to fight the various militias, if it is to be effective. "It is the safe areas of Bosnia all over again," he said. "We give people food and blankets, but then say they can be massacred at night."
Backstory [sidebar]
After Darfur erupted into violence in 2003, it took nearly 18 months for the first peacekeepers - 150 Rwandan soldiers - to be deployed. By 2005, when it was clear that neither the government nor rebel groups intended to honour a ceasefire, the African Union force was boosted to 7,000. Hampered by a lack of [both] cash and equipment, the peacekeepers were seen by all the warring parties as a soft target. By last April, at least 15 AU soldiers and policemen had been killed by militias on both sides. After refusing a bigger peacekeeping force, the Sudanese government has agreed to allow in a 26,000-strong AU-UN force, although it may still be months away from full deployment.
By Steve Bloomfield of the UK's "Independent"...
At least 10 African Union soldiers have been killed and 50 are reported missing after a weekend assault on their base in southern Darfur. It was the worst attack yet on AU peacekeepers in the war-torn Sudanese region since their deployment three years ago, and happened just weeks before the first wave of new UN troops is set to arrive.
"Our camp has been completely destroyed," an AU spokesman, Noureddine Mezni, said yesterday [Sunday]. "There is a feeling of shock."
As many as 1,000 armed men in at least 30 vehicles stormed the base in Haskanita, South Darfur, just after sunset on Saturday evening, in what the AU called a "deliberate and sustained" assault.
The latest violence to threaten Darfur's fragile peace process came as a new diplomatic initiative for ending the four-year conflict got under way.
Brought together by former South African president Nelson Mandela, the so-called "peace elders" include his wife and rights activist Graca Machel, South African archbishop Desmond Tutu, former US president Jimmy Carter, the former UN envoy to Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi, as well as the British business tycoon Richard Branson. They arrived in Sudan yesterday and are due to meet Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir, before continuing on to Darfur to talk to community leaders.
Following the attack on the AU base, both the Sudanese government and rebel leaders pinned the blame on each other. However, the AU force commander, Martin Luther Agwai, appeared to suggest [that] responsibility for the attack lay with one of Darfur's numerous rebel movements when he commented that "rebel groups, who indulge in such random violence and bloodshed, undermine their own credibility on any negotiation table".
Peace talks between Khartoum and the rebel movements are due to begin later this month, hosted by Muammar Gaddafi in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
Sources in Sudan suggested the attack may have been carried out by a renegade rebel commander keen to establish his own group. Since the last Darfur peace agreement was signed, in May 2006, the number of rebel groups has grown from three to at least 15.
The 7,000 AU troops have been unable to quell the violence, and a 26,000-strong joint UN/AU force is set to replace the ailing AU force over the coming months, with the first troops expected in the region by the end of October.
The weekend assault on the Haskanita base, which happened just after the fast-breaking meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, served to illustrate the importance of reinforcements.
Egypt's Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said [that] the attack "confirms the need to send the African and UN hybrid force (to Darfur) as soon as possible". But Khartoum has blocked its deployment at almost every step, throwing up logistical obstacles and repeatedly going back on promises.
As the negotiations continue, conditions on the ground are deteriorating. Since 2003, more than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes.
A UN assessment report released in September concluded that the humanitarian situation in Darfur became even worse in August. Around 100 aid workers had been taken hostage and nearly 100 vehicles hijacked this year. Oxfam last week warned [that] it may be forced to pull out of Darfur due to the increasing violence.
By Mike Pflanz of the UK's "Telegraph"...
The African-led peacekeeping force in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur has suffered a heavy blow, after gunmen raided one of its camps, killing at least 10 soldiers.
A "large and organised" group attacked the base in Haskanita, in Southern Darfur province, shortly after sunset on Saturday.
Seven troops were wounded, and about 50 are still missing after the attack, which was the largest since the African Union troops arrived in Darfur in 2004.
"This is the heaviest loss of life and the biggest attack on the African Union mission," said an AU spokesman, Noureddine Mezni.
"Our troops fought a defensive battle to protect the camp, but 30 vehicles eventually stormed it. The camp is completely destroyed."
By late Sunday, the remaining AU peacekeepers had been moved out of the base. Sudanese-government soldiers and militias, who later forced the rebels out of the area, could be seen plundering goods from the burnt-out camp as an AU armoured vehicle lay smouldering nearby.
One of the dozen or so rebel groups operating in Darfur is thought to have been responsible for the latest attack.
"I am profoundly shocked and appalled by this outrageous and deliberate attack against neutral peacekeepers, which I vehemently condemn," said Rodolphe Adada, the joint AU-UN special representative for Darfur.
The attack came just weeks before crucial peace talks to be hosted by Libya. Fighting between rebels and Sudanese government forces has intensified as each side tries to improve its position, ahead of the negotiations.
Many rebel groups believe [that] the 7,000-strong AU force is collaborating with the Sudan government. The soldiers deployed by the AU, an alliance of all 53 African countries, are widely seen as ineffective.
The nationalities of the AU soldiers killed have not yet been revealed, but most of the troops are from Rwanda and Nigeria. A larger, joint UN-AU force is due to be deployed early next year.
More than four years of civil war have claimed about 300,000 lives, from violence, starvation, or disease.
From Nigeria's "This Day"...
It was a tragic weekend for Nigeria in Darfur, Sudan, as an orchestrated attack on an African Union (AU) Army base in the warring region killed seven of the country’s [Nigeria's] soldiers.
Reports indicate that in total, 12 peace-keeping soldiers lost their lives in the attack, described as the deadliest since the forces were deployed in 2003.
Thirty vehicles overran the base, with 50 AU soldiers missing and seven seriously injured. Vehicles and property were looted or vandalised, the BBC reported yesterday [Sunday].
Details on the Nigerian soldiers who lost their lives were not yet available yesterday, but THISDAY learnt that Nigerian authorities have been briefed on the tragedy.
Nigerian military officials were not available for comment last night.
Rebel sources told the BBC that the raiders were members of breakaway factions from two rebel groups.
AU officers said [that] 1,000 rebels from the Sudan Liberation Army stormed the AU base in the town of Haskanita.
"There is a war going on between the rebels and the government, and the AU is crunched in the middle," a senior AU officer said.
Saturday's attack followed an April shooting by unidentified gunmen that killed five Senegalese AU peacekeepers in Umbaro, in northwest Darfur, near the border with Chad.
A day earlier, the AU said [that] gunfire "clearly targeted" a helicopter carrying Brig. Gen. Ephreim Rurangwa, a commander for the African Union Mission in Sudan.
Five bullet holes were found on the helicopter, but no one was injured in the attack, which the AU called an attempted assassination.
Only one rebel group signed an AU-brokered peace agreement in May 2006.
That pact has done little to stop the fighting between government-backed militias and rebel groups, which the United Nations estimates have killed more than 200,000 people and driven about 2 million from their homes in the past four years.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Sudan's foreign minister have invited Darfur's rebel groups to join peace talks with the Sudanese government on October 27 in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
The "hybrid" force of UN and AU troops and police -- which will be under AU command -- is scheduled to take over from the current AU force by the end of the year, according to the UN.
The peacekeeping force, which will be known as UNAMID, "will be the world's largest peacekeeping operation," according to the UN.
The current AU force of about 7,000 has been unable to stop the violence, and Sudan agreed to allow a bigger peacekeeping force, after massive international pressure.
AU-UN Joint Special Representative Rodolphe Adada said [that] he was profoundly shocked and appalled by the “outrageous and deliberate” attack.
The fighting comes at a particularly “unfortunate moment”, with discussions about to take place between the AU and [the] UN to pave the way for peace talks between government and rebels, an analyst told the radio station [i.e., the BBC].
Prospects of an agreement at the talks are starting to look bleak, he said.
A spokesman for the rebel Justice and Equality Mo-vement (JEM) condemned the attack, saying [that] it was carried out by three dissident commanders from his own movement, in conjunction with one of the groups that broke from the Sudan Liberation Army.
"It's a group which has been expelled," Ibrahim Jalil said.
"They're looking for equipment - vehicles and weapons. They couldn't get these within JEM, and they don't have the capability to fight government forces. They found the AU an easy target."
Sources told the BBC that the attackers made off with all the weapons and vehicles [that] they were able to take, and burned the vehicles that remained.
The AU statement described the attackers as "a large and organised group of heavily armed men", but did not say whether they were rebels or government troops.
"It is staggering to imagine what could possibly have been the intentions of those who perpetrated this wanton and unprovoked act," Mr Adada said.
"Not only was it a flagrant violation of the ceasefire, but [also] an unconscionable crime that breaks every convention and norm of international peacekeeping."
The UN Security Council has approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force to expand the current AU force, which has been struggling to protect civilians.
The attack came as South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu was expected in Sudan, in the latest initiative to bring peace to Darfur.
The archbishop is leading a delegation that includes former UN special envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, US ex-President Jimmy Carter, and Graca Machel, a children's-rights advocate and the wife of Nelson Mandela.
The group of retired elder statesmen came together at Mr Mandela's invitation [in order] to find ways to tackle some of the world's toughest problems, such as HIV-Aids, poverty, and conflict. At least 200,000 people have died and some 2 [million] have been forced from their homes during the four-year conflict.
The delegation will meet President Omar al-Bashir and others in Khartoum before travelling to Juba, capital of southern Sudan.
They will then travel to Darfur, where they will meet community leaders and displaced people living in camps.
By Jeffrey Gettleman of the "New York Times"...
Hundreds of Darfurian rebels overran an African Union peacekeeping base in central Darfur in a surprise raid over the weekend, killing at least 10 soldiers, possibly kidnapping dozens more, and pilfering supplies that included heavy weapons, African Union officials said [on] Sunday.
The raid, which began late [on] Saturday and appeared to be highly organized, was the deadliest and boldest attack on African Union peacekeepers since they arrived in Darfur three years ago.
It came just as the United Nations has been trying to persuade member countries to commit troops and support to a greatly expanded Darfur peacekeeping force. Aid officials now fear [that] some of those countries may have second thoughts about participating.
According to Noureddine Mezni, an African Union spokesman, the rebels swarmed the base just after sunset with 30 heavily armed trucks, surprising the guards and opening fire with a barrage of machine guns that overwhelmed the peacekeepers.
“We tried to defend ourselves, but we were completely outnumbered,” Mr. Mezni said. “Our camp was totally destroyed, and they looted everything — guns, trucks, even an armored personnel carrier.”
Mr. Mezni said [that] the rebels, whose precise affiliation was unclear as of late Sunday, came at the camp from every direction with their trucks in what he called a “deliberate and sustained attack.”
After the initial assault, the attackers came back a second time [in order] to plunder and loot, African Union officials said.
The base, in the town of Haskanita about 100 miles east of Nyala, a major city in Darfur, is situated on flat scrubland, and had been temporary home to about 100 African Union peacekeepers.
Scenes shot by news-agency photographers who reached the site on Sunday showed damaged white prefabricated base buildings, at least one burnt-out armored vehicle, and survivors of the assault leaving with what few belongings they had left.
The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who only a few weeks ago completed a highly publicized diplomatic mission to Darfur to lay the basis for the expanded peacekeeping force and for new peace talks to be held in Libya, issued a statement condemning the attack and called for “the perpetrators to be held fully accountable for this outrageous act.”
The attack was the most-dramatic display yet of the new kind of chaos that is engulfing the Darfur region of Sudan, where the conflict has morphed from a rebellion and brutal counterinsurgency into a free-for-all between dozens of armed groups, with aid workers and peacekeepers increasingly in their sights.
Relief officials said that as these groups splinter, they need military arms and equipment [in order] to sustain their new factions, and that the attack on the peacekeepers may have been a raid to seize quality weapons.
“It’s indicative of the complete insecurity,” said Alun McDonald, a spokesman for the Oxfam aid organization in Sudan. “These groups are attacking anybody and everybody with total impunity.”
Mr. McDonald added that armed groups were “increasingly targeting aid workers [in order] to steal their vehicles, radios, and logistical stuff.”
He said [that] the attack on the peacekeepers “sounds quite similar to that — just on a much-larger scale.”
Mr. McDonald and others expressed concern that the spiraling violence could scare away countries which have been considering contributing peacekeepers to the long-awaited United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission, which is supposed to begin arriving in Darfur later this year. Anticipation of that force, which will expand the number of peacekeepers to 26,000 from 7,000, and the high-level negotiations between rebel groups and the Sudanese government scheduled for October, may be fueling a power struggle on the ground that is driving this new round of bloodshed.
Haskanita is currently embroiled in a three-sided war between two formidable rebel groups and the Sudanese government. United Nations officials said that the area has become so dangerous, even by Darfur’s standards, that most aid organizations have pulled out.
Recently, Haskanita has been the scene of some of the heaviest fighting in the region. Earlier this month, African Union officials accused government forces of dropping bombs dangerously close to their base. Aid workers said [that] those battles killed more than 300 people, including several dozen mowed down by government helicopter gunships. The government denied killing any civilians.
On top of that, the two main rebel groups in Haskanita — the Sudan Liberation Army, and the Justice and Equality Movement — have splintered and begun fighting among themselves, driving thousands of civilians from their homes. Many had set up tents around the small African Union base, where the peacekeepers were handing out food and medicine.
“Our job out there was basically humanitarian,” Mr. Mezni said.
He estimated that most of the Hankanita base’s troops were from Nigeria. More than 50 are still missing — officials believe [that] they may have been captured, and at least seven soldiers were seriously wounded. African Union peacekeepers have been regularly attacked, but this was the first time [that] a base had been overrun.
Mr. Mezni did not specify which rebel faction he thought was responsible.
“There are so many factions,” he said. “And [every day], things keep changing.”
But Sudanese-government officials on Sunday blamed a splinter faction connected to the Justice and Equality Movement.
“We’ve been told that people in the area recognized them,” said Ali Sadiq, a spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs.
He denied [that] the Sudanese government had anything to do with the attack, saying, “we can’t do that. We’re working hand in hand with the A.U.”
African Union officials said [that] there were few government troops in the area, and [that] it was unlikely that government soldiers or militias allied to them had killed the peacekeepers.
A top rebel commander for the Justice and Equality Movement denied [that] his group had been involved.
“We strongly condemn any attack on the A.U. They’re here to help the people of Darfur,” the movement said in a statement broadcast on [the] BBC.
The movement blamed the government for staging the attack and making it look like the work of the rebels [in order] to discredit them.
The Darfur conflict has grown increasingly complex. The violence has often been characterized as government-backed Arab tribes slaughtering non-Arab tribes, and four years ago, when the heavy fighting began, that may have been the best simplification of what was happening. United Nations officials estimate [that] at least 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million [have been] made homeless.
But recently, Arab tribes have begun fighting Arab tribes, rebels have begun fighting rebels, and armed men who seem to have no allegiances are attacking whomever crosses their path.
In April, five Senegalese soldiers were killed in what, until this weekend, was the deadliest attack on African Union peacekeepers in Darfur.
According to Mr. McDonald, in the last 10 days, there have been 14 attacks on aid workers, and some have included shootings.
David Mozersky, the Horn of Africa project director for International Crisis Group, said [that] the brazenness and scale of the Haskanita attack was “a very bad sign.”
“It’s a symptom of how much [that] the conflict has expanded,” he said. “It’s no longer the government versus the rebels. There are just far more actors now.”
From the UN News Service...
Condemning in the strongest possible terms the recent attack in Haskanita, South Darfur, which killed some 10 African Union (AU) peacekeepers, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today [Sunday] called for those responsible to be brought to justice for the "outrageous" act.
According to AU reports, personnel from the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) have also been wounded and many are missing following yesterday's [Saturday's] "shocking and brutal assault," Mr. Ban said in a statement.
He offered his condolences to the families of those who were killed, and called "on all parties to recommit as a matter of the highest priority to a peaceful resolution to the conflict, as the Government and rebel movements prepare for peace talks in Libya on 27 October, and as the African Union and [the] United Nations prepare to deploy a joint peace operation in Darfur."
The UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) also decried the incident, which it characterized as "unprovoked and barbaric," by an armed group.
"UNMIS is shocked at the unprecedented scale of the attack," it noted in a statement issued today.
The Mission also reiterated that "attacks on AMIS constitute a serious violation of international law and relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and the African Union, and urges all concerned to assist in identifying the perpetrators, so [that] they could be held accountable without delay."
Social change for the next generation
Young girl with infant child at refugee camp in Darfur. Photo by Dan Scandling, Office of U.S. Representative Frank Wolf