Attack on Darfur aid convoy - Kiir meets Mubarak in Cairo

It's good to see Reuters improving their standards. In their latest news of an attack on an aid convoy in Darfur, they use the words "armed men" instead of "bandits" and explain "the official said it was not possible to accurately determine whether the armed men were operating alone or were connected to pro-government or rebel forces in the area."

Further excerpt from the report:

Armed men attacked and robbed an aid convoy travelling in western Darfurand threatened to kill aid workers if they used the same route again, a senior official with one of the aid groups involved said on Saturday.

"They (armed men) severely beat the people travelling in the convoy - there were some broken limbs. ... They cleaned out the cars. They took phones, money, radios, everything," the official told Reuters.

"They threatened to kill the people in the convoy if they saw them travelling on the same road again," the official added.

The convoy included seven vehicles and 22 foreign and Sudanese staff members. Women in the group were stripped of their clothes and beaten.

The incident happened on Thursday in the Masteri area, southwest of of El Geneina.

UPDATE Sep 3 - Eugene links to Reuters report: Darfur: Rebel Attacks are Banditry, AU Official Says.
- - -

Sudan's VP Kiir and Egypt's President Mubarak in Cairo



Sept 1, 2005: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (R) meets with Sudan's new first Vice President Salva Kiir in Cairo in Kiir's first visit abroad since succeeding the late John Garang. Their talks focused on ongoing efforts to end the 30-month-old civil war in Darfur. (AFP/Khaled Desouki)

According to an unsourced report at the Sudan Tribune, Kiir, who was in Cairo for one day, also met Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa, officials said, without elaborating.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa Cairo Egypt Kiir Mubarak aid aid worker aid convoy attack