Gboyega Akinsanmi With Agency Report
1 October 2007
Lagos — It was a tragic weekend for Nigeria in Darfur, Sudan, as an orchestrated attack on an African Union (AU) Army base in the warring region killed seven of the country's soldiers.
Reports indicate that in total, 12 peace-keeping soldiers lost their lives in the attack, described as the deadliest since the forces were deployed in 2003.
Thirty vehicles overran the base, with 50 AU soldiers missing and seven seriously injured. Vehicles and property were looted or vandalised, the BBC reported yesterday.
Details on the Nigerian soldiers who lost their lives were not yet available yesterday, but THISDAY learnt that Nigerian authorities have been briefed on the tragedy.
Nigerian military officials were not available for comment last night.
Rebel sources told the BBC that the raiders were members of breakaway factions from two rebel groups.
AU officers said 1,000 rebels from the Sudan Liberation Army stormed the AU base in the town of Haskanita.
"There is a war going on between the rebels and the government, and the AU is crunched in the middle," a senior AU officer said.
Saturday's attack followed an April shooting by unidentified gunmen that killed five Senegalese AU peacekeepers in Umbaro, in northwest Darfur near the border with Chad.
A day earlier, the AU said gunfire "clearly targeted" a helicopter carrying Brig. Gen. Ephreim Rurangwa, a commander for the African Union Mission in Sudan.
Five bullet holes were found on the helicopter, but no one was injured in the attack, which the AU called an attempted assassination.
Only one rebel group signed an AU-brokered peace agreement in May 2006.
That pact has done little to stop the fighting between government-backed militias and rebel groups, which the United Nations estimates have killed more than 200,000 people and driven about 2 million from their homes in the past four years.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Sudan's foreign minister have invited Darfur's rebel groups to join peace talks with the Sudanese government on October 27 in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
The "hybrid" force of UN and AU troops and police -- which will be under AU command -- is scheduled to take over from the current AU force by the end of the year, according to the UN.
The peacekeeping force, which will be known as UNAMID, "will be the world's largest peacekeeping operation," according to the UN.
The current AU force of about 7,000 has been unable to stop the violence, and Sudan agreed to allow a bigger peacekeeping force after massive international pressure.
AU-UN Joint Special Represe-ntative Rodolphe Adada said he was profoundly shocked and appalled by the "outrageous and deliberate" attack.
The fighting comes at a particularly "unfortunate moment", with discussions about to take place between the AU and UN to pave the way for peace talks between government and rebels, an analyst told the radio station.
Prospects of an agreement at the talks are starting to look bleak, he said.
A spokesman for the rebel Justice and Equality Mo-vement (JEM) condemned the attack, saying it was carried out by three dissident commanders from his own movement, in conjunction with one of the groups that broke from the Sudan Liberation Army.
"It's a group which has been expelled," Ibrahim Jalil said.
"They're looking for equipment - vehicles and weapons. They couldn't get these within JEM, and they don't have the capability to fight government forces. They found the AU an easy target."
Sources told the BBC that the attackers made off with all the weapons and vehicles they were able to take, and burned the vehicles that remained.
The AU statement described the attackers as "a large and organised group of heavily armed men", but did not say whether they were rebels or government troops.
"It is staggering to imagine what could possibly have been the intentions of those who perpetrated this wanton and unprovoked act," Mr Adada said.
"Not only was it a flagrant violation of the ceasefire but an unconscionable crime that breaks every convention and norm of international peacekeeping."
The UN Security Council has approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force to expand the current AU force, which has been struggling to protect civilians.
The attack came as South African Archbishop Des-mond Tutu was expected in Sudan, in the latest initiative to bring peace to Darfur.
The archbishop is leading a delegation that includes former UN special envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, US ex-President Jimmy Carter, and Graca Machel, a children's rights advocate and the wife of Nelson Mandela.
The group of retired elder statesmen came together at Mr Mandela's invitation to find ways to tackle some of the world's toughest problems, such as HIV-Aids, poverty and conflict. At least 200,000 people have died and some 2m have been forced from their homes during the four-year conflict.
The delegation will meet President Omar al-Bashir and others in Khartoum before travelling to Juba, capital of southern Sudan.
They will then travel to Darfur where they will meet community leaders and displaced people living in camps.
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