Rebels say U.N. force is needed
Commanders from the only rebel group that signed a peace accord in May for Sudan’s Darfur region are prepared to resume fighting if African Union peacekeeping troops leave as scheduled at month’s end and are not replaced by a United Nations force, according to more than a dozen senior rebel officials interviewed Wednesday.
Rebel commanders predicted that such a resumption of combat would spell the end of Darfur’s tattered peace agreement and quickly escalate fighting to an intensity not seen since the early days of the conflict in 2003 and 2004.
Their comments came as the African Union force of 7,000 is preparing to depart and as Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is vigorously resisting pressure to allow a U.N. peacekeeping force of up to 22,500 to enter the country, threatening to attack them if they try. At a meeting scheduled for Monday, officials of the 53-country African Union are to reconsider their decision to withdraw their soldiers
Abdulrahaman Abdallah, a commander of the rebel group’s military police, said that without a strong international force here, “the government will go back to its strategy, which is genocide, and inevitably we will go back to the bush.”
Florence fading; Gordon no threat
Hurricane Florence’s remnants brought high winds and heavy rain to the Canadian coast on Wednesday, while a strengthened Hurricane Gordon and a tropical depression in the open Atlantic weren’t threatening land, forecasters said.
Florence’s remains brought wind gusts of more than 100 mph and bands of rain to southern and southeastern Newfoundland, as well as dangerous surf, according to the Canadian Hurricane Center. Tropical storm warnings were in effect for those areas.
Out in the central Atlantic, Gordon had top sustained winds near 110 mph, making it a Category 2 storm. It became the third hurricane of the Atlantic season Tuesday night but was destined to remain over open waters and was not expected to threaten land, the National Hurricane Center said.
Moscow
Gunmen shoot, kill central bank exec
MOSCOW \— The top deputy chairman of Russia’s Central Bank died today, hours after being shot by unidentified assailants, authorities said.
Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Andrei Kozlov died in the hospital where he was taken following the attack late Wednesday night, Moscow prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said.
Kozlov’s driver was also killed in the attack.
While rarer than in the turbulent 1990s, contract killings of businessmen and bankers still regularly occur in Russia, where business conflicts often turn violent.
Vice Premier Alexander Zhukov said the assassination was likely linked to Kozlov’s duties, and suggested the possibility of a connection with the Central Bank’s revocation of licenses of unreliable commercial banks.
Kozlov had had overseen an ambitious scheme to reduce criminality and money laundering in the banking system.