News Search Search this site or the web powered by FreeFind Site search Web search Story archive		14-12-2004 Scotsman UN halts Darfur aid work after killings By Gethin Chamberlain Diplomatic Correspondent THE United Nations yesterday suspended humanitarian operations in the south Darfur region of Sudan after gunmen killed two Save the Children workers in an ambush on an aid convoy. It was the second fatal attack on Save the Children staff in Darfur in the past two months. The UK charity immediately suspended its operations in the area while African Union troops began an investigation. The charity operates a feeding centre and medical clinics close to the scene of the killings, and the men, both Sudanese, were in a clearly marked convoy of aid vehicles travelling on a main road back to their offices when the gunmen opened fire. The attack, on Sunday, reflects the worsening violence in the Darfur region, where Save the Children says up to 300,000 people may have lost their lives as a result of violence. Sudanese authorities blamed rebels, but the Khartoum government has admitted that its soldiers have been involved in fighting in the region. The UN Security Council last month passed a watered-down resolution urging all parties to seek an end to the conflict. The UN has previously described the situation in Darfur as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, while the United States has classified the attacks on black African farmers by the Sudanese government and its Arab militias as genocide. The African Union (AU), which is attempting to monitor the ceasefire, warned that the increased fighting threatened peace talks between negotiators for the government and the rebels. Assane Ba, a spokesman for the AU, said ceasefire violations were on the increase, with 13 in September and 54 documented since the beginning of October. "That means the violations are growing," Mr Ba said. "This is poisoning the atmosphere, and we can't have meaningful negotiations in this situation." The attack on the Save the Children staff happened as they returned in convoy on the main road between Mershing and Duma. The victims were named as Abhakar el Tayeb, a medical assistant, and Yacoub Abdelnabi Ahmed, a mechanic. Ken Caldwell, a Save the Children spokesman, said: "We deplore this brutal killing of humanitarian workers in Darfur. Our deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of our Sudanese colleagues. "Our humanitarian operations in south Darfur are currently suspended whilst we review the situation. An African Union investigation is under way." On Saturday, the Travis singer Fran Healy travelled with Save the Children to southern Sudan, where he is spending the week visiting projects funded by proceeds from the new chart-topping Band Aid single. The charity has lost four staff to attacks in the past two months. On 10 October Rafe Bullick, a programme manager from Edinburgh, and Nourredine Issa Tayeb, a Sudanese water engineer, were killed by a landmine in north-west Darfur. The organisation recently resumed operations in north Darfur, although it has not returned to the area where the landmine exploded. The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003 after years of strife between farmers and herders over shrinking land and water resources in the arid region. Sudanese authorities hope to sign a peace deal with rebels from the region in the New Year following a fragile ceasefire brokered on 9 November. Darfur rebels suspended formal peace talks in Nigeria yesterday to put pressure on the government to halt an offensive in the vast desert region. Rebel negotiators said they would not leave the Nigerian capital Abuja immediately, and were still open to informal consultations, but that the formal talks would not resume until the situation on the ground improved. Expectations of a breakthrough were low before rebels walked out of talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, with both sides trading accusations of ceasefire breaches. The African Union is sponsoring the peace talks in Nigeria and has committed to a 3,000-member peacekeeper deployment for Darfur. So far it has put only about 800 soldiers and 100 observers in the field.
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