Sudan Mediators Try to Avert Darfur Attack
Posted by The Star on Monday, February 2, 2009 at 10:17 AM (PST)
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Mediators tried on Monday to avert a Sudanese attack on a rebel-held town in Darfur after the army asked peacekeepers to leave ahead of an assault, the international force said.
A spokesman for the U.N./African Union force said the peacekeepers were still in Muhajiriya and were concerned about the 30,000 civilians there.
U.N. officials said it was the first time Sudan had asked peacekeepers to withdraw from a town in Darfur.
The UNAMID mission is undermanned and under equipped while tension is escalating in Darfur ahead of an expected decision by International Criminal Court judges on whether to indict Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes.
UNAMID spokesman Nourredine Mezni said the U.N./AU representative in Darfur, Rodolphe Adada, planned to meet officials in Khartoum on Monday to try to negotiate an end to the crisis over the south Darfur town.
U.N.-AU mediator Djbril Bassole planned to fly to neighbouring Chad to meet leaders of the Justice and Equality Movement rebels, he said.
In Ethiopia for an African Union summit, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Sudan and rebel groups to stop all violence that threaten the peace process and civilians.
"I have called on the authorities of Sudan to use maximum restraint in this regard," he said.
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