SUDAN: Sudan gives African Union forces monitoring a fragile truce in its war-ravaged Darfur region an ultimatum to leave the country

Record ID: 349238

  • Title: SUDAN: Sudan gives African Union forces monitoring a fragile truce in its war-ravaged Darfur region an ultimatum to leave the country
  • Date: 6th September 2006
  • Summary: (BN09) ALFASHER, DARFUR, SUDAN (FILE - JUNE 21, 2006) (REUTERS) UN CARS ON TARMAC AFRICA UNION PEACEKEEPING OFFICIALS WAITING AFRICA UNION (AU) PEACEKEEPER TOGETHER WITH THE GOVERNOR OF NORTH DARFUR, OSMAN MOHAMMED KIBIR ON TARMAC AFRICA UNION CHAIRMAN ALPHA KONARE LEAVES PLANE KONARE BEING MET BY THE GOVERNOR OF NORTH DARFUR, OSMAN MOHAMMED KIBIR AFRICA UNION PEACEKEEPE
  • Embargoed: 21st September 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sudan
  • Country: Sudan
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA59DW3HDAIYYOCYMP7UOT6BENG
  • Story Text: On Monday (September 4, 2006), Sudan gave African Union forces monitoring a fragile truce in its war-ravaged Darfur region an ultimatum to leave the country by September 30, as Khartoum launched a new offensive threatening a return to full-blown war.
    Khartoum has defied the international community and rejected a UN Security Council resolution passed on Thursday (August 31) to deploy more than 20,000 U.N. troops and police to Darfur to replace the cash-strapped and ill-equipped AU mission.
    "The mandate of the African Union forces in Darfur ends on September 30. Until now, this moment, the African Union has not requested an extension for its forces in Darfur, although this was the demand of Sudan. The United Nations Security Council resolution considers these forces as of September 30 as part of the transition to international forces. Sudan rejects international forces. The AU refuses to extend the mandate of its forces beyond September 30. Therefore, and naturally, if these forces do not want an extension, they should withdraw," Sudanese presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail told a news conference in Khartoum.
    An AU spokesman said it had not been informed officially of any such decision and declined to comment.
    The AU says it has cash to fund its mission only until mid-October and has failed to stem the violence which has escalated since the May accord, signed by only one of three negotiating rebel factions.
    Ismail argued that the peace deal, brokered by the AU and supported by the international community, had not made any provision for the deployment of UN forces in Darfur, which UN officials warn is on the brink of a return to all-out war.
    Instead Khartoum has vowed to move thousands of troops to the region to take control there after the African Union pulls out its forces, setting the stage for a new round of confrontation with the international community over the Darfur crisis.
    Sudan has been consistent in its rejection of a transition from the AU to the UN, accusing the West of using the Darfur conflict as a pretext to re-colonize the country and impose a patronage on Sudan.
    Ismail singled out the United States, which along with Britain, sponsored the latest Security Council resolution on Darfur, for attack and claimed that Washington also wanted to bring down the government in Khartoum.
    The world's largest aid operation is under threat in Darfur as access to the more than 3 million war victims is at its lowest since the conflict began in early 2003. Since May, 12 aid workers have been killed in the remote west.
    Critics say Khartoum fears U.N. troops will arrest officials likely to be indicted by the International Criminal Court investigating alleged war crimes in the region. The two institutions are separate.
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