SUDAN: UN chief Ban Ki-moon visits UN troops camp in Sudan

Record ID: 345244

  • Title: SUDAN: UN chief Ban Ki-moon visits UN troops camp in Sudan
  • Date: 6th September 2007
  • Summary: FLAG ON MAST, SUN GOING DOWN SOLDIERS HANDING MACHINE GUNS, SUN SETTING
  • Embargoed: 21st September 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sudan
  • Country: Sudan
  • Topics: International Relations,Social Services / Welfare
  • Reuters ID: LVA3T9FP4ZJC21FFNRWC0THHGUGZ
  • Story Text: Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday (September 5) visited the area of El Fasher, in norther Darfur, where a total of 26,000 troops from the United Nations and the Africa Union will stay to help the refugees fleeing civil war in the Darfur region.
    The visit follows to a tour earlier in the day of the nearby al-Salam camp where the U.N. chief was mobbed by displacing Sudanese.
    "I was so shocked and humbled when I visited IDP (internally displaced people) camps. I was in shock at the poverty and the hardiship all these tens of thousands of people were undergoing," he said.
    Sudan puts the death toll from the conflict, which flared when rebel groups took up arms against the government charging it with neglect, at 9,000.
    International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes during the more than four years of fighting in Darfur.
    Ban Ki-moon asked for international help to alleviate the suffering of the Sudanese.
    "I really wanted to give them even a small sign of hope as Secretary General. I felt they were humbled by the limits of the resources and power and I really urge the international community to help them, to come to their home and land, give them sense of security, bring peace as soon as possible," he said.
    Ban told journalists he had made good progress in organising a date and venue for long-promised peace talks expected to take place in October between the government of Sudan and Darfur's splintered rebel groups.
    The UN chief was told about serious underfunding of the Africa Union (AU) mission, adding that while the official strength of the AU force in Darfur is 7,000, there are now 5,915 troops on the ground.
    In Khartoum on Wednesday, the government-backed Popular Defence Forces militia, blamed for much of the violence in Darfur, said it would accept a hybrid force as long as it stays within its mandate. It had vowed last year to treat any U.N. force as an invading army in a state of war with Khartoum.
    Its announcement brings its position into line with that of the government, which agreed to the force in July after long negotiations over the details.
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