CHILD RAPE INCREASE IN DARFUR

23.11.2005. 10:16:07

A monthly UN report on the situation in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region shows that in October there was an increase in the number of rapes and civilian killings, including children.

The report by UN chief Kofi Annan, said despite government pledges to launch joint military and police patrols on highways to improve security, "lawlessness and banditry have reached dangerous levels".

It said the upsurge in violence against civilians seriously affected children, with several killed or abducted in the region.

The violence also hampered the delivery of humanitarian aid and initially reduced prospects for the return of internally displaced people in some areas.

The report said the UN mission in Sudan (UNMIS) continued to document cases of sexual violence against women and girls on a weekly basis, particularly in western Darfur where 21 cases - nine rapes, four attempted rape and eight assaults - were reported.

The violence also targeted the African Union mission in Sudan (AMIS), with five AMIS troops killed in a firefight with an armed group - the mission's first such deaths.

"Armed clashes and banditry in western Darfur have placed severe limitations on the movement of the humanitarian community in Geneina (western Darfur)," the report said.

"All roads out of the town are restricted for humanitarian traffic and non-essential United Nations (personnel), and some staff of international non-governmental organisations have been relocated."

The security situation was also reported to be very tense in parts of southern Darfur, with incidents of banditry occurring daily.

Mr Annan made it clear a political solution was "paramount" and required coordination between the Sudanese and the international community to pave the way for a successful conclusion to the forthcoming seventh round of peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria.

"It should be made clear to all parties that the AU-facilitated peace talks in Abuja are the only vehicle for achieving a viable solution," the report said.

An African Union spokesman said on Sunday in Khartoum the seventh round of peace talks had been postponed for "logistical reasons" amid a rift between Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) founder Abdel Wahed Mohammed Nur and the head of the military wing, Mani Arko Minawi.

Those talks between the SLM, Darfur's other rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), and Khartoum, were due to begin in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on Monday.

The African Union has threatened to impose sanctions against the SLM, which it said was hindering peace efforts.

The AU Peace and Security Council said divisions in the leadership of the SLM were hurting efforts to resolve the 33-month-old Darfur conflict that had claimed hundreds of thousands lives.

SOURCE: World News