Two peacekeepers slain in Darfur attack
Amid new surge in decade-old conflict, UN secretary-general urges Sudanese government to bring killers to justice.
Two peacekeepers, one from Senegal and one from Jordan, have been killed in Sudan’s Darfur region after an unidentified armed group attacked their convoy, according to the United Nations.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the “cowardly attack” on the peacekeepers near Greida, South Darfur, and said he expects the government of Sudan to bring those responsible to justice swiftly.
“The secretary-general was appalled to learn of another armed attack by unidentified assailants on a convoy of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur,” noted a statement issued by the UN.
One attacker was killed and another wounded along with the two peacekeepers, the UN said.
Rogue tribes
Law and order has collapsed in much of Darfur, where mainly African tribes took up arms in 2003 against the Arab-led government in Khartoum, which they accuse of discriminating against them.
A joint African Union/United Nations operation known as UNAMID has been deployed in the region since 2007.
The conflict in Darfur has killed about 300,000 people, the UN estimates, and displaced two million.
At least 14 peacekeepers have been killed in a surge of violence in Darfur in the past six months, with many of the attacks blamed on rogue tribes.
The Sudanese government has yet to detain any of the attackers.