Militias attacking humanitarian convoys, says UN

Armed men, some in military uniform, have continued to attack humanitarian convoys in western Sudan's Darfur region, according to a UN spokeswoman. "Military personnel, uniformed men and 'unidentified persons on camels' had stopped and attacked clearly marked convoys of humanitarian workers in the west and north of Sudan's volatile Darfur region," UN News quoted Marie Okabe as telling journalists in New York on Tuesday. It added that both the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan Liberation Army had increased the number of road checkpoints in Darfur, thereby slowing down the flow of humanitarian assistance for the estimated two million people affected by the conflict. In Southern Darfur, civilians were still being displaced by tribal fighting and attacks by government-backed Janjawid militias, which have been broadly accused of perpetrating atrocities in Darfur. UN News noted that the reports followed an agreement between UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was in the Sudan last week, and the Sudanese government for Khartoum to disarm the Janjawid and remove all obstacles to relief efforts. It quoted staff of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Nyala, the capital of Southern Darfur State, as reporting the arrival "in the last few days" in a nearby camp for internally displaced persons [IDPs] of more than 100 people "telling harrowing tales of attacks by the Janjawid and Sudanese government forces". They had said "their villages were first hit by bombs from airplanes and helicopter gunships, before armed men arrived in trucks and on horses and camels and killed their relatives and neighbours, raped women, stole their livestock and possessions and burned their homes". A UNHCR spokeswoman, Jennifer Pagonis, briefing reporters in Geneva, expressed concern over the plight of about 1,500 IDPs who were reportedly beaten by police and soldiers to forcibly remove them from a camp near Nyala, which was supposedly situated on private land. She added that the rainy season had made it very difficult for UNHCR to reach tens of thousands of would-be refugees remaining near the border with Chad, because "many roads have become impassable as the rains have turned otherwise dry river beds into flooded water-courses". Fighting between the government and rebels, which first broke out in Darfur early last year, has displaced about two million people, with up to 200,000 seeking refuge in neighbouring Chad. The UN and other aid agencies have described the conflict in Darfur as "the world's worst humanitarian crisis".