Crisis in Darfur drags on

AL-FASHER, Sudan – As a U.N. deadline expires for Sudan to ease the crisis in Darfur, the situation on the ground remains bleak – villagers forced from their homes by gunmen on horseback still cower in camps for the displaced, and reports the Sudanese military is bombing villagers continue to surface.

The Sudanese government, which was given 30 days by the United Nations to rein in Arab militiamen or face penalties, appealed Monday to the Security Council to make a “reasonable decision.”

“Of course, we are concerned,” Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told Associated Press Television in Khartoum, the capital. “We wish … the relationship with the Security Council will not be the way of confrontation. We hope it will be in the form of cooperation.”

His remarks came as a U.S. State Department official assessed conditions for thousands of displaced people in Darfur, and a contingent of 155 Nigerian soldiers arrived, swelling the ranks of an African Union mission monitoring a shaky cease-fire between government troops and rebels.

Three U.N. teams report today to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on whether the government is doing all it can to disarm the Arab militia.

Known as Janjaweed, the militiamen are blamed for killing and raping black African villagers and for driving more than 1 million people from their homes, sparking what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The Security Council will meet Thursday and consider whether to take action against Khartoum. The United States has advocated sanctions against the government.

“We hope the Security Council will come out with a reasonable decision that will help us to continue working together,” Ismail said.

Constance Berry Newman, U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, touched down at Al-Fasher airport in a U.N. World Food Program twin-engine plane. She was briefed by aid agencies and U.N. officials before touring Abu Shouk camp, home to some 43,000 villagers driven from their homes in 18 months of fighting between government troops and rebels.

Ismail refused to meet with Newman in Khartoum, and the official Sudanese news agency quoted him as saying it was in protest of the State Department’s failure to help Sudan keep its embassy open in Washington. Sudan announced Wednesday the embassy had closed because it was unable to find a bank that would handle its financial matters.

Children clamored around Newman as she visited a classroom in the camp, where students sat in the shade on mats to learn about basic sanitation and the importance of clean drinking water.

She later watched as aid workers inoculated babies against measles.