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| July 9, 2008 |
Seven peacekeepers were killed and 22 were wounded, seven critically, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters in New York. The peacekeeping force known as UNAMID, which is severely under-equipped and under-manned, has suffered a string of attacks since it assumed control from an African Union force in Darfur, gripped by escalating insecurity and banditry.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was flying back from the G8 summit in Japan, "condemns in the strongest possible terms this unacceptable act of extreme violence against AU-UN peacekeepers in Darfur," she said.
UN officials in Sudan said a Ghanaian was among the dead, and that 17 Rwandan peacekeepers, and others from Ghana, Senegal and South Africa, were among the wounded. Some of the victims are in intensive care.
The peacekeepers were attacked while returning from following up allegations by the Minni Minnawi faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, which signed a 2006 Darfur peace deal with the government, that two former rebels had been killed.
Two UN officials in Sudan said Janjaweed -- state-backed Arab militia -- were suspected of carrying out the attack.
In late May, dozens of heavily armed men on horseback ambushed a UNAMID patrol in Darfur and seized weapons from Nigerian troops near El Geneina, and in a separate incident a Ugandan policeman was found murdered in North Darfur.
Last September, 10 AU peacekeepers were killed in a well organised attack on their camp at Haskanita in southern Darfur.
Details of the latest attack emerged as visiting British Foreign Minister David Miliband said it was difficult to see future optimism in Darfur, which has been riven by conflict for more than five years. Until security is provided and a political process underway, it would be wrong to be anything other than "extremely cautious about the prospects, because of the scale of devastation that has already happened," he said. "I think it's very difficult for those of us who live in wealthy countries and lead comfortable lives to talk about optimism when there is such a humanitarian crisis that exists in Darfur," he told reporters.
The World Food Programme, the largest UN humanitarian agency, has cut rations by half because banditry has made the roads increasingly dangerous.
Since UNAMID took over from a small African Union force on December 31, only 7,600 troops and 1,500 police have been deployed -- barely a third of the projected total of 19,500 soldiers and 6,500 policemen.
The force lacks the air transport and cover desperately needed to support troops across terrain with limited roads, as well as transport vehicles.
The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease and more than 2.2 million fled their homes since the conflict broke out in February 2003.