African Union to probe Darfur massacre

The African Union is to investigate the killing of at least 30 civilians on 11 November by hundreds of armed militiamen, who attacked a camp for internally displaced people at Sirba near Kulbus in the Sudanese state of West Darfur, a source said.

The militiamen, supported by 18 military vehicles, injured scores more, including women and children. They also burned down almost 100 houses. "The assailants were said to be on camels and horses, and the village was razed," the AU official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said. "The AU is conducting an investigation into the incident."

This was the latest in a series of widely condemned attacks by armed militias, believed to be members of Darfur's government-allied janjawid.

"What is important for us is whoever they are - janjawid, unknown armed militia, tribal militia - whatever they are, they are not supposed to do what they are doing," Rhadia Achouri, spokesperson for the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), said. "They are supposed to be stopped by the government and the authorities of the country. This is not supposed to be happening. Attacking civilians is attacking civilians. Whatever label we put on the attackers, they are still to be stopped."

The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has called for a high-level meeting involving the United States, European Union, Russia, China and the African Union to discuss the deadly violence in Darfur, a UN spokesman said.

Also invited to the meeting in Ethiopia on Thursday are representatives from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Egypt and the League of Arab States, the spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, told reporters in New York. Annan will attend the meeting with representatives of the Sudanese government.

According to UNMIS, the security situation has continued to be volatile in all Darfur's three states, with a number of reported deadly militia attacks on civilians, violent acts of banditry and clashes between government and rebel forces in the past few days. In North Darfur, for example, Arab militias attacked three villages, killing six civilians, including four children, on Friday.

Annan, in his latest report to the Security Council, deplored the increasing violence and called on all sides to negotiate. "Even as efforts to strengthen AMIS [African Union Mission in Sudan] continue … a comprehensive and lasting resolution to the crisis will come only through a broad-based political settlement, which will require the complete commitment of the government and the rebel movements," he said. "This settlement will be achievable only if discussion and dialogue replace the bombings, attacks and counter-attacks of the last two months … The suffering of the Darfurian population has lasted far too long."

The fighting in Darfur began in 2003, pitting the Sudanese army and allied Arab militias against rebel groups, who said they had taken up arms to fight for greater autonomy for the western Sudanese region. Aid agencies and human-rights groups estimate that 200,000 people have been killed in the conflict, while 2.5 million people have fled their homes because of massacres, mass rape, looting and village burning and are living in camps in Darfur or in Chad.

The Sudanese government opposes the transformation of the ill-equipped and under-funded AU force of 7,000 that is deployed in the region into blue berets, accusing the western world and the UN of seeking to recolonise Sudan. Dujarric said the UN would strengthen the AU mission with a US$21 million package.

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