Region | Sudan
Aid agencies, Darfur rebels meet in Geneva
Talks to improve security situation for relief workers after peacekeepers were killed.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:53 July 10, 2008
Geneva: Aid agencies and Darfur rebels on Thursday began two-day talks aimed at improving the protection of civilians and safe access for relief workers in the Sudanese region, days after insurgents killed UN peacekeepers.
Unamid force members were ambushed by about 40 vehicles full of heavily armed fighters during a patrol in North Darfur on Tuesday, Unamid said. Seven UN peacekeepers were killed in the worst attack on the force since it began work on December 31.
"The humanitarian situation is getting worse, it's very serious," Dennis McNamara, an aid veteran who is chairing the closed-door talks, told Reuters.
"This attack (on Unamid) was a terrible incident and a terrible sign. We want to hold concrete discussions on what can be done, who is responsible for attacks and why," McNamara said.
Senior members of two main rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement Unity faction, are attending the humanitarian workshop in Geneva, McNamara said.
Both groups have denied responsibility for the Unamid attack.
Up to 200,000 people have been uprooted this year alone by violence in the western region, while 164 humanitarian vehicles have been carjacked, according to the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue which is hosting the Geneva meeting.
A total of 8 Sudanese aid workers have been killed and 139 abducted so far in 2008, and dozens of humanitarian or peacekeeping premises have been broken into, it said.
Attacks on UN food convoys have forced a cut in rations to millions in Darfur by almost half since May. Government promises of escorts for aid trucks have not materialised.
Some 17,000 aid workers are deployed in Darfur, where international experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in 2003.
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