Sudan Shootout Kills 7 Peacekeepers

Deadliest Attack Of Mission So Far; Nearly A Dozen Others Were Wounded In Ambush

(AP)  Hundreds of heavily armed fighters riding horses and SUVs launched a brazen attack on a U.N.-African Union patrol in Darfur, killing seven peacekeepers and wounding nearly a dozen others, the U.N. said Wednesday.

The ambush was the deadliest attack on the international mission since it deployed this year and highlighted the vulnerability of the short-staffed and under-equipped force.

About 200 gunmen on horseback and in SUVs mounted with anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons exchanged gunfire for more than two hours on Tuesday with the peacekeeping force that included 61 soldiers from Rwanda, the U.N. said.

Five Rwandan soldiers and two police officers, one from Ghana, the other from Uganda, were killed. Twenty-two peacekeepers were wounded, including at seven who were in serious condition, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's said.

"We are outraged by the attack," Shereen Zorba, deputy spokeswoman of the U.N.-AU mission known as UNAMID, told The Associated Press. "We are not part of the conflict, but a tool to alleviate the suffering of civilians. We try to establish some level of peace and security in the ground. But to drag us in to be part of the conflict is unjustifiable."

Hindered by a lack of crucial equipment, including attack helicopters, the joint force, has struggled to fulfill its mission since deploying in January with about 9,000 soldiers and police officers.

The force is authorized to have 26,000 members, but it is faced with chronic shortages of staff and equipment and less-than-adequate cooperation from the Sudanese government.

The U.N.-AU peacekeepers mostly patrol, help protect civilians without weapons in the many camps of displaced Darfurians and mediate between fighting factions. But they often have little access to wide swaths of the remote western Sudanese region, roughly the size of France.

The peacekeeping force has been unable to persuade the U.S. and other governments to supply attack and transport helicopters, surveillance aircraft, military engineers and logistical support it needs to safely navigate Darfur.

On Tuesday, the unit was on its way back to its camp in Shangil Tobaya after investigating the recent slayings of two rebels affiliated with the Sudan Liberation Army when the ambushed occurred near the village of Umm Hakibah, about 60 miles southeast of the North Darfur capital, El Fasher, Zorba said.

"The U.N. Secretary General condemns in the strongest possible terms this unacceptable act of extreme violence" against peacekeepers, Ban's spokeswoman, Michele Montas, said at U.N. headquarters in New York.

The U.N. rarely explicitly blames one of the warring factions for Darfur's violence, and Zorba declined to say who was behind Tuesday's attack.

But the description that the gunmen were on horseback strongly suggests they belong to the janjaweed militia of pro-government Arab nomads.

Sudan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq said 13 people were killed in the attack, but he was uncertain how many of those were gunmen. He accused a splinter group of the rebel Sudan's Liberation Army-Unity faction for the attack and blamed European countries for not putting enough pressure on rebel leaders to stop Darfur violence.

"Most of these rebel leaders live in Europe, but the international community is lax and easy with these rebels and this encourages them to attack peacekeeping forces," he told the AP by phone from Khartoum.

The Darfur conflict has claimed up to 300,000 lives and uprooted 2.5 million people since ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in 2003. Critics accuse Sudan of arming janjaweed Arab militias that have terrorized Darfur villages - a charge Khartoum denies.

The U.N. and AU have tried for months to open new peace talks between Sudan and rebel groups, which have splintered into more than two dozen factions, following the failure of a 2005 agreement to stem violence. But most rebel chiefs are boycotting the negotiations.

Initially, African Union peacekeepers were deployed to patrol Darfur. But constant staff and equipment shortages left them ill-prepared to fend off attacks. In October, 10 AU peacekeepers were killed in an ambush on a military base in Haskanita in northern Darfur. Rebels were blamed for that attack.

The joint U.N.-AU force was meant to beef up security in Darfur, but banditry and other violence against both peacekeepers and civilians continue. There have been at least seven attacks on the joint force over the past six months.

Last month, four U.N.-AU staffers were assaulted and held at gunpoint in Darfur. One of the staffers was stripped of his belongings, kidnapped briefly and then released by Arab militiamen on horseback, according to a statement from the joint force.

In May, an Ugandan officer was found fatally shot in a vehicle operated by the UNAMID force in North Darfur - the first U.N.-AU peacekeeper killed since the mission deployed. UNAMID had described the killing as "an act of cold blooded murder."

U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno has said there was an alarming increase in violence in the Darfur, which also spread recently to the capital Khartoum and said it could escalate further.

Earlier this year, the U.N. said suffering in Darfur has worsened, forcing tens of thousands of people to be uprooted from their homes. The U.N. World Food Program said it had to cut food rations because of increasing banditry against its drivers in the region.

One key stumbling block to the U.N.-AU force has been the Sudanese government's reluctance to allow non-African troops into the region. The UNAMID commander said an agreement between Ban and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on this issue was crucial to securing Darfur.

Nigerian Gen. Martin Agwai has said he hoped the force would grow to 13,000 over the next few months - with Egyptian, Ethiopian, Thai and Nepalese troops added. He also has expressed optimism the force could reach its goal of 80 percent of the full deployment by year's end.

[keithle1]

Unless you''re God, you can''t make lasting positive change in Africa. Don''t waste your time. Save your benefit concerts. Don''t schedule any meetings with African heads of state.

[libsluv2spit]

bono and geldof ONCE fought the ''man'' till the day they became the ''man''..that failure of these liberal heros..

[keithle1]

Please come to the Sudan so we can kill you.

[johngoodnews]

Let''s see if I''ve got the drill right: China needs all that Sudan oil to fuel the slave-labor factories used by US Corporations who have outsourced to China to get cheap goods to sell in Wal-Mart. Ok, I got it. Sorry about that all you victims in Sudan and Darfur, but the US isn''t going to do jack to help you because that might cut the oil supply to China, and after all China is our favorite slave-labor state and we want them to have the cheapest oil possible to keep our Wal-Mart addiction satisfied.

[mommakat64]

Sadly, this will go on and on...Bono & Geldoff are fools if they think that anybody wants to give more so that the kleptocratic dictators can just steal more. I worked hard for my money and I''m not going to throw it down some African "rat hole". The UN needs to get relevant..."peace keeping" in genocidal African ain''t gonna happen. The UN is about as useful, and relevant, as the League of Nations was... both were doomed from the start because they had/have no teeth. The dictators of mass destruction around this world need to feel some TEETH on their a$$e$...maybe if we take some of these loud-mouth megalomaniacs by the throat, they''ll sit down and shut up. And, yes, The Hollywood elitists want us to bomb who THEY want bombed, when THEY want us to bomb...of course, they live in high ivory towers and do not understand REAL LIFE...and I ask, "Who died and left them gods?"

[libsluv2spit]

BONO AND GELDOF DEMANDS MORE AID FOR SUDAN!!

[whiskyrocker]

Savages,the whole lot of them.

[minnick8-2009]

It''''s too bad that so many innocent people have to starve to death and be killed because the politics are ineffectual and impotent.

Posted by RandyNason

Unless I''m missing something, it appears to me that what the libs want is for the U.S. to go to Africa to "Save," it/them. But, we are supposed to pull out of Iraq. If we went to the Sudan or Darfur, how would we save them?

[minnick8-2009]

The problem was that the peacekeepers were not headed by Obama. Obama plans to sit down with the thugs and reason. I''m looking forward to it actually.

[frootloop47]

The only thing the UN is good for is having a forum to debate world issue. This was proven after the ump-teen UN resolutions given to Saddam Hussein went totally un-enforced.

[papabc]

lilvinnyb
=====
The liberal world does not need the US unless they can not (As usual) fix things themselves.

Democrats want peace but they must fight to maintain for America, always. The Arab world has a nasty bunch of islamis thugs that will chop your head off if at all possible.

[ciitzenusa]

U.N. = Useless Nitwits

No wait!
The UN is sooooo wonderful. Look at the fabulous victories they gave us WW1,WW2, Korea, Gulf War I.
Wait. My mistake. Those were REAL armies, led by Americans. My error.

So, has the UN ever won any conflict, ANYHWERE, ever?

[lilvinnyb]

Well you "non neocons". This is the same organization that you hold up every day to being justice to the world.

Fact is they are impotent without the U.S., yet never help us when we need (or would like) a hand.

No one wants us to be the worlds policeman, but look who they call when they need a cop.

[noaanhc]

The real meaning of the letters UN

Usually Nothing

[questionnews]

Well, neo cons this is where we should have sent the troops. I hope you enjoy the last neo con stand it is over after the elections you do know that right.

Posted by antoniof123 at 01:54 PM : Jul 09, 2008

I belive you are right in that a Dem should be in the White House next, but I would caution those that want to lay the worlds problems at the feet of a political party that is currently in office, because by setting that kind of standard, when the Dems take over they will be the ones that will have to take responsibilty for all the world''s problems that pop up and fix them. If Dem hold Repubs responsible for addressing every problem on the planet, the Dems better be ready to take the same heat they are dishing out.

BTW--I''m Independant. I really don''t want either of those "Party People" in the White House. They all have been bought & paid for years ago and neither have any plans of change the staus quo.

[randynason]

If the Sudan had something that was appealing to the U.S. for corporate gain, we''d be over there in a freaking heartbeat. It''s too bad that so many innocent people have to starve to death and be killed because the politics are ineffectual and impotent.

[shippg-2009]

UN Peacekeepers cannot carry guns, so their words are just ignored. There really is no good reason for them to be there. Watch the movie "Hotel Rwanda" to see how useless they are. They stand by watching the slaughter in one country after another. This time they obviously got slaughtered, too.

[antoniof123]

The peacekeeping force has been unable to persuade the U.S. and other governments to supply attack and transport helicopters, surveillance aircraft, military engineers and logistical support it needs to safely navigate Sudan''s remote western Darfur region.

Well, neo cons this is where we should have sent the troops. I hope you enjoy the last neo con stand it is over after the elections you do know that right.

[whiskyrocker]

The country is full of savages,animals.

[babooph]

The US needs to radically REDUCE,money for all this failed nonsense-all military spending cut by over 50%-the world needs to fund its own protection.The rich in the States do not pay for it & the middle class no longer has any $.Due to the fact that this will not happen -I invest OUTSIDE the US-why count on the suckers to learn?