Sudan resists UN peace force as fighting cuts off aid from half of Darfur

Up to half of Darfur's population has been trapped by renewed violence in the Sudanese province where the Khartoum government has stiffened its resistance to a United Nations peacekeeping force, the UN secretary general has warned. The humanitarian crisis–once described as the world's worst by the UN–has become so alarming that Kofi Annan has alerted the Security Council to the deepening conflict which has been overshadowed by the war in Lebanon. In a letter, obtained by the Independent, Annan said: "As a result of the fighting and direct targeting of humanitarians, only 50 percent of civilians affected by the conflict can be reached by humanitarian organizations. The rest, some 1.6 million people, are either inaccessible, or can only be reached by putting the lives of aid workers directly at risk." Villagers are fleeing to camps reporting "indiscriminate killings, rape and abduction," he said. Even women living in the camps are not safe. In one case last month, "several hundred militiamen attacked a group of women collecting shelter materials outside Kalma camp, south of Nyala, raping 17 of them." Three months ago, the world rejoiced when Sudanese rebels struck a power-sharing peace deal with Khartoum that was to end three years of conflict that killed an estimated 200,000 people and displaced 1.8 million. But since May 5, when the accord was signed, rebel factions have turned on each other, the killing of black African civilians by Arab militias has resumed and aid convoys have come under attack. The Sudanese government has, meanwhile, stepped up its resistance to a fully fledged UN force taking over from an African observer mission. The Security Council will discuss this week Annan's gloomy assessment in which he also laments the fact that the African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission faces bankruptcy, despite a "relatively positive" outcome from a Brussels pledging conference last month. The AU mission's mandate expires on Sept. 30. At that time, it had been hoped that the Khartoum government would agree to a 24,000-strong UN force being dispatched to the region on Oct. 1, with a more robust mandate than the AU observers. The UN now hopes to deploy an international force in January, but the Sudanese government has steadfastly disrupted preparations for it. On Aug. 15, emboldened by the Lebanese conflict, Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese President, declared: "We are determined to defeat any forces entering the country just as Hezbollah has defeated the Israeli forces. We are opposed to the deployment [in Darfur] of US, British or other forces imposed by the Security Council." On the political front, attempts to enforce the peace deal have proved counter-productive as the main rebel group loyal to Minni Arkoi Minawi, which signed the accord, has clashed with other rebel groups that did not. And critical deadlines for implementation of the Darfur Peace agreement's power-sharing provisions regarding posts reserved for rebels in a regional administration have slipped. According to Annan, a plan to restrict the government-armed Janjaweed militia to designated areas has gone unheeded. Relief workers are dismayed about the turn of events in Darfur. Jan Egeland, the chief UN humanitarian officer, has said the situation is "going from real bad to catastrophic." About 14,000 aid workers have remained in Darfur despite the safety risk–11 have been killed since the peace deal was signed. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the agency remained extremely concerned about the continuing deterioration in the security. Some Darfur aid workers have been beaten to death by angry mobs, according to the UNHCR. The World Food Program warned on Aug. 16 that a decline in donations might force it to scale back food rations for six million people in Sudan. Chadian refugees are continuing to flee into Sudan as insecurity in their country spreads. About 15,000 Chadians have sought refuge in Sudan in the past eight months, and Médecins Sans Frontières says cholera has broken out in one camp. Amnesty International said that "what the people of Darfur need now is an international peacekeeping force with the power to put a stop to the killings, to the raping and to the displacement." Human Rights Watch is calling for the imposition of sanctions against Sudanese leaders over their opposition to the UN peacekeepers. The Security Council is also expected to consider how to help the African Union mission–it may also authorize communications and command and control equipment to be transferred to the mission. But the aftermath of the Lebanese conflict will weigh heavily on the discussions. "It's true, there is heavy demand because of Lebanon," said one council diplomat.