Attack on Darfur village condemned, donors meet in Oslo

The UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) and the African Union (AU) have strongly condemned the recent destruction of a village in the western Sudanese state of South Darfur by armed militias. In a joint statement released on Friday, Baba Gana Kingibe, the AU’s ambassador to Sudan, and Jan Pronk, the UN secretary-general’s special representative for Sudan said: "We learnt with utter shock and disbelief of the relentless day-long attack on [the village of] Khor Abeche by armed militia of the Miseriyya tribe of Niteaga." "They rampaged through the village, killing, burning and destroying everything in their paths and leaving in their wake total destruction, with only the mosque and the school spared," the envoys added. According to the statement, over 200 militiamen on horses and camels attacked the town on Thursday, under the command of Nasir Al Tijani Adel Kaadir. A further 150 reinforcements, also from Niteaga, a town north-west of Nyala, South Darfur’s capital, later joined them. The exact number of people killed and wounded during the attack had not yet been established, UNMIS said. "There is no further information at this point, but the AU is investigating the matter," George Somerwill, UNMIS deputy spokesperson, told IRIN on Monday. Thursday’s attack appeared to be in retaliation for the alleged theft of 150 cattle, whose tracks the militiamen supposedly traced to the village, the statement said. Al Tijani had also accused a rebel movement, the Sudan Liberation Army - which controlled the village - of refusing to return the bodies of two of his men, killed in a failed attack on Khor Abeche in March, the statement added. His name and those of his lieutenants would be sent to the UN Security Council sanctions committee and they would be brought to justice, Kingibe and Pronk promised. They also called on the Sudanese government to take appropriate action against the militia leader. In March, the Council passed two resolutions on Darfur: one which imposed a travel ban and an asset freeze on those responsible for atrocities against civilians in the region; and another which referred those accused of war crimes to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The AU had been ready since 3 April to deploy troops to Niteaga and Khor Abeche, after Al Tijani had repeatedly threatened to destroy the village, according to the statement. However, the AU said it was prevented from acting by "what can only be inferred as deliberate official procrastination over the allocation of land for the troops’ accommodation." UNMIS and the AU urged all the parties to refrain from retaliations, and to observe their obligations under the various ceasefire agreements. Meanwhile, on Monday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and representatives of the Sudanese government and the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) attended an international donor conference for Sudan in Oslo, Norway’s capital. During the two-day conference, Sudan was expected to ask donors for support to rebuild the country. According to the UN, the World Bank, the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A, Sudan needs about US $2.6 billion in reconstruction aid for the next two years.