Gunmen shoot at AU monitors in West Darfur

Gunmen in the western Sudanese state of Darfur on Monday opened fire on two African Union (AU) teams investigating reported cease-fire violations, AU officials said. Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the AU Commission in Sudan, condemned the shooting in a statement on Tuesday. The first incident occurred in the town of Jayjay, south of the capital, Nyala, where AU monitors were investigating an alleged attack on a village. The second occurred near Shangil Tobai, where another team was looking into reports that aerial bombings had taken place. No casualties resulting from either incident were reported. Kingibe said that "the military observers were undertaking their legitimate duty" of investigating allegations of violations of the N'Djamena Ceasefire Agreement when they came under fire. "The AU does not wish to be drawn into a situation where its monitors and protectors will be obliged to defend themselves by the use of force," he added. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned attacks on the monitors in a separate statement on Tuesday, saying this "could jeopardise the fulfilment of the AU mission in Darfur." On 1 December 2004 another member of the AU observer team was shot at, and on the 19th an AU helicopter was fired upon. The AU warned that if its team continued to be targeted, this would constitute a serious threat to the ceasefire monitoring process. Annan urged the Sudanese government and rebel forces in Darfur "to respect the neutrality of AU monitors, observers and police, as well as all international humanitarian workers, and to guarantee that they operate in the region under conditions of safety and security." The N'Djamena Ceasefire Agreement to halt fighting in Darfur and allow humanitarian organisations' access, was signed by the Sudanese government and the two main rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), on 8 April 2004 in the Chadian capital. However, the Janjawid militias, who are blamed for most of the atrocities, were neither signatories to the agreement, nor specifically referred to in the text, and the agreement has repeatedly been violated by all parties since its inception. In a report published on Monday, a UN commission of inquiry found that government forces and militias had conducted indiscriminate attacks throughout Darfur, including the killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement, but concluded that these did not amount to genocide. The commission blamed the government for joining in the attacks, and for complicity with the Janjawid militia, but also said the rebels were responsible for some of the serious crimes committed against the people of Darfur. The war in Darfur pits the Sudanese government troops and militias, allegedly allied to the government, against rebels fighting to end what they have called the marginalisation and discrimination of the region's inhabitants by the state. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Darfur, with up to 1.85 million internally displaced or forced to seek refuge in neighbouring Chad. The UN has described the Darfur conflict as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.