Sudan Condemns Attack on UNAMID Peacekeepers in Darfur

(RTTNews) - Sudan's government on Thursday condemned the attack on UN-AU peacekeeping mission in the country's troubled Darfur region on Wednesday, which resulted in the death of seven peacekeepers.

The government blamed the SLM-Unity rebel faction for the attack and said in a statement released Thursday that the attack was intended to "destabilize the region and prove it is not safe." It also urged the UN and western countries to take sterner actions against the rebels.

Unidentified gunmen on Wednesday killed seven members of the joint UN-AU peacekeeping mission and injured 22 others in a well-coordinated attack in northern Darfur.

Despite the Sudanese government's claims, the UNAMID suspects government-backed Janjaweed militia of being responsible for Wednesday's attack, for which no one has yet claimed responsibility.

The UNAMID or the joint AU-UN mission took over peacekeeping duties in the troubled Darfur region in January from the AU peacekeeping force. Though it is authorized to have 26,000 members, it has only about 9,000 troops under its disposal now.

UN estimates that about 300,000 people have been killed and some 2.5 million displaced after ethnic Africans of the region took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in 2003 to fight discrimination.