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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Peacekeepers killed in ambush in Sudan

Stephanie Mccrummen Washington Post

NAIROBI, Kenya – Seven peacekeepers were killed and 22 were wounded, seven critically, in a militia ambush on their convoy in Darfur, the largest hit on a struggling, joint U.N.-African Union force that took charge in January, officials said Wednesday.

The convoy of 50 soldiers and police was attacked Tuesday afternoon along a stretch of desert road by a group in about 40 sport-utility vehicles, and a two- to three-hour firefight ensued, according to Sherene Zorba, a spokeswoman for the force. It was the first time the peacekeepers returned fire.

The injured were airlifted from the scene, and those most critically injured were evacuated to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on Wednesday evening, Zorba said, adding that six peacekeepers were still missing.

The conflict in the western Sudanese region has become increasingly complex, with more than a dozen rebel factions, former government militias, tribal militias and others engaging in a scramble for trucks and weapons. Their targets are mostly humanitarian groups and the nascent peacekeeping mission, which have brought fleets of trucks and supplies to the region.

While banditry now occurs almost daily in Darfur, it has been mostly small in scale – attackers arrive in two or three armed trucks. But Tuesday’s attack was an apparently well-organized assault that has shaken the peacekeepers and aid workers who had been dreading precisely this scenario.

“It’s not being taken as just another attack,” said one aid worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak on the record. “This was much bigger than anything that’s happened before. People are quite worried about what will happen next.”

It was unclear which militia group staged Tuesday’s attack, which took place as the peacekeepers, known by their acronym UNAMID, were returning from a mission to investigate an alleged assault on a rebel faction in north Darfur. The convoy was about 60 miles from their base, in an area where control is divided between a rebel faction and Arab militias.

The rebels are from the Minni Minnawi faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, which signed a failed peace deal with the government in 2006.

“UNAMID is obviously outraged at the attack, which it considers a flagrant disregard of the will of the international community and the people of Darfur to have a degree of peace and security established,” Zorba said.