International Human Rights Day Marked By Deaths In Darfur

Militiamen on horseback ambushed a refugee convoy in Sudan’s western Darfur region, killing some 30 civilians, the United Nations and aid workers said Sunday, and African Union peacekeepers called to investigate were briefly taken hostage by other refugees.

With violence in the region worsening, aid workers in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, and the U.N. said pro-government janjaweed militiamen ambushed a truck Saturday outside Sirba on a road near the border with Chad and executed about 30 civilians.

“Some of the passengers were shot by the attackers and others were burnt to death,” a U.N. statement said.

Some are claiming that the attacks were by anti-government forces to put the janjaweed, Sudanese government, and the African Union in a bad light. The AU Peacekeepers have come under fire and had to return fire in some of the latest incidents.

Peacekeepers returned fire when they saw their attackers were armed with rocket-propelled grenades, an African Union soldier said. It was not clear who the assailants were, said the soldier, who insisted on speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

In a sign of the African Union’s difficulties in Darfur, Sudanese police were deployed around the camp to protect the peacekeepers. The police presence suggested the attack was by civilians frustrated with the peacekeepers and not the janjaweed, a U.N. official said.

UN and other relief agencies have withdrawn their people from some of the areas because of the increased violence. That only makes a bad situation worse, and distrust between the refugees and those who are trying to help them. Darfurian refugees have no reason to trust the regime in Khartoum, for their support of the janjaweed, so seeing the police operating with the AU adds to the distrust.

Technorati: darfur, dafur, UN, sudan, chad, somalia, ethiopia, eritrea, african union, janjaweed, and Kofi Annan