Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan stands firm, but more international support needed, UN Security Council told

UN News Centre report dated 13 January 2006 provides a link to Council Briefings by Jan Pronk and Salim Ahmed Salim 13 January 2006.

Note, Mr Jan Pronk is the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative in the Sudan and Head of the United Nations Mission there. Mr Salim Ahmed Salim is Special Envoy of the African Union for the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks on the Conflict in Darfur.

Sudan: UN envoy says Security Council must enforce sanctions

Excerpt from above UN News Centre report:

UN Security Council must enforce its sanctions against belligerents and human rights violators in Sudan or lose credibility, the head of the UN Mission in the country (UNMIS) said.

"If even weak sanctions are not going to be implemented, the Security Council doesn't take itself seriously and they have to," Jan Pronk told reporters after briefing UN Security Council on January 13, 2006.

"They have to because otherwise the people on the ground are just laughing."

Sudan's bid to chair AU likely to fail - Nigeria's President could stay in chair

Reuters report Jan 14 says Sudan's bid to lead the African Union will probably fail through conflict of interest and a decision on who is to chair the AU is not likely at its summit in Khartoum on Jan. 23.
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Jan 14, 2006 SAPA report says Sudan's bid to chair the African Union has put the continent's leaders in a tough position because of the country's poor human rights record and the conflict in Darfur.

UN envoy in Sudan calls for up to 20,000 UN peacekeepers to disarm militias in Darfur

Associated Press report Jan 14 reprinted by Khalee Times says Jan Pronk, the top UN envoy in Sudan, declared on Jan 13 that efforts to bring peace to Darfur have failed and called for a robust UN peacekeeping force of up to 20,000 troops to disarm marauding militias and provide security so over 2 million displaced people can return home.
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Pronk admits peace strategy to halt "cleansing in Darfur" has failed

Unsourced report January 13 reprinted by Sudan Tribune says on briefing the UN Security Council Jan 13 on latest developments in Sudan, top UN envoy Jan Pronk also called for sanctions against those responsible for the violence.

Describing the security situation in Darfur as "chaotic," he said: "looking back at three years of killings and cleansing in Darfur we must admit that our peace strategy so far has failed."

"Terror continues. At least once a month groups of 500 to 1000 militia on camel and horseback attack villages, killing dozens of people and terrorizing the others," he added.

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Further reports at Passion of the Present.

US supports UN sending troops to help in Darfur

The United States supports augmenting African Union forces in Darfur with UN peacekeepers but has not offered its own troops for such a mission, US officials said on Friday January 13, 2006.

Sudan says UN peace force in Darfur unwelcome

Quelle surprise. Sudan is not ready for a proposed UN peace force in Darfur, its foreign minister has told the BBC today, January 13.
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Sudan does not want another force on the ground

Latest report from Reuters says Sudan on January 13 rejected a suggestion by UN head Kofi Annan that US and European troops be sent to Darfur, saying the international community should give more cash to African forces already on the ground. Extracts from the report:

"We think that the African Union is doing a good job and so far they have not said they are unable to do that job," [Sudanese] Foreign Minister Lam Akol told Reuters.

"Naturally what should happen is to give them the money they want, not to complicate matters by involving another force on the ground," he said.

Darfur rebels would welcome foreign troops

One of two main Darfur rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), said it would welcome U.S. troops.

"If the Americans came they would be preferable to the African Union who so far have failed in their duties to protect civilians," SLA Vice President al-Raya Mahmoud Juma'a said.

"They (the African Union) have enough forces and equipment, but they still cannot do their job and stop the attacks," he told Reuters from Darfur.

The rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said the nationality of the force did not matter. But JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein said more troops were needed with a stronger mandate to protect civilians.

End of March decision on AU Darfur Mission handover to UN

The AU, in a statement on Friday, said it "expresses its support, in principle, to a transition from (an AU) to a UN operation".

It added it planned to meet before the end of March to make a final decision on any future handover to the United Nations.

What peace to keep and monitor?

[Sudanese Foreign Minister] Akol said the AU was a peace monitoring force and Sudan did not need the military power of the United States in Darfur.

"What would they do other than what the African forces can do?" he said. "We are not looking for a force who is going to fight," he added.
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Responses from bloggers

Note comment at this blog entry from unknown author of a new blog Genocide au Darfour, saying:

"The commander in charge of the massacres in Darfur is called MAHAMAT NOUR ABDELKRIM.

The "captain" Mahamat Nour, ex-officer of the chadian army, has commanded the Jandjawids with the sudanese logistic. He has been the principal planner of the genocide in Darfur. Thanks to his chadian nationality, he was used as an alibi by the Sudanese government."

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From the UK, Mick Hartley blogs a must-read executive summary of PHR Report on Darfur.

UN's Annan wants US, Europe to consider force to police Darfur - AU considers Darfur Mission hand over to UN

Reuters report Jan 12 says the African Union is considering handing over its Darfur Mission to the United Nations because of lack of funds:

"The time has come to make a pronouncement on the future of the AU Mission in Darfur and the ways and means to adapt it to the present challenges, including the hand over to the United Nations at the appropriate time," said a report by the AU Peace and Security Council, obtained by Reuters.

UN's Annan wants US, Europe to consider force to police Darfur

The Reuters report quotes Secretary-General Kofi Annan as saying on Wednesday the UN is considering a tough mobile force to police Darfur and hopes the US and European military will help stop the bloodshed, rape and plunder.

But here's the catch [over the past two years, Sudan has refused an expanded mandate for AU peacekeepers and all offers of other foreign troops as it would be seen as occupation - and forced entry as an act of war - was supported on this stance by China, Russia and many African leaders]: Mr Annan said that first the Sudanese government, the 15-member UN Security Council and the 53-member African Union, which has sent the only foreign troops to Darfur, had to agree to a UN operation:

"We need to get the (Sudan) government to work with us in bringing in an expanded force with troops from outside Africa, because until recently it has maintained that it will only accept African troops," Annan told reporters. "But I think we have gone beyond that now."

"Obviously the international community cannot allow that situation to go unaddressed, and in all likelihood will have to look at other options, including possibly the U.N. working with the African Union to address the situation."

Annan warns Darfur rebels

Annan said Darfur rebels now were also attacking people and warned them to take seriously negotiations now being held with the Khartoum government in Abuja, Nigeria.

Sudanese president wants to chair African Union

Note the report quotes Mr Annan as saying any AU handover would take months. Also, it explains a decision on the future of the AU's Darfur Mission is to be taken at summit in Khartoum Jan 23-24. [The summit is where the Sudanese president, listed in a magazine poll last year as the world's worst dictator, will find himself between a rock and a hard place under the world's media spotlight, when decisions on Darfur are made as he hopes to be voted Chair of African Union - voting takes place during the summit.]



Photo: Sudanese President al-Bashir.

Designate Sudan as sponsor of terrorism is a mistake - Bashir

Sudan has been on the United States list of state sponsors of terrorism since August 1993. Following a thorough intelligence review, Sudan's Islamist government was found to be providing sanctuary, safe passage, military training, financial support and office space in Khartoum to officials of international terrorist and radical Islamic groups at that time.

On the first November 2005, US President George W. Bush has extended for one year sanctions against Sudan, a country the United States considers a sponsor of terrorism, the White House announced in a statement.

African Union have resources until March

Jan 12, 2006 UN News Centre UN weighs options for Darfur as funds for African Union force run low - "From what I know, they (the AU) have resources up till March," Mr. Annan told journalists after his monthly luncheon with the 15 Security Council members. [via Coalition for Darfur]

Physicians for Human Rights Report "Our most revealing and authoritative portrait of genocide in Darfur"

A short summary by Eric Reeves in today's Sudan Tribune describes the new report by Physicians for Human Rights as an extraordinarily powerful and authoritative anatomy of genocide in Darfur and our most revealing and authoritative portrait of genocide in Darfur. [via POTP Tonight's Reminders]

You cannot say you did not know

Jan 11, 2006 - Click here and turn up your sound. Spend a few minutes watching short film clips of what been going on in the Sudan for more than two decades at a cost of 2.5m lives. Be sure to watch the flash movie on Darfur by Physicians for Human Rights.

Sudanese troops disguising themselves as African peacekeepers - AU

In a report to be submitted to the AU's Peace and Security Council on Thursday, AU Commission Chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare said the Sudanese troops were painting their vehicles white, the colour of AU peacekeepers' vehicles "to disguise their identities and launch surprise attacks on their opponents".

Full story 12 Jan 2006 News 24 SA.

The El Multaga resettlement site - Sudan's Chinese backed Merowe Dam is for the greater benefit of Sudan

Note Telegraph article 8 Jan 2006 - Race to save first kingdoms in Africa from dam waters - excerpt:

"Archaeologists have come under pressure to down tools from campaigners against the dam, who claim that their activity lends the project legitimacy.

Derek Welsby, the deputy keeper of the British Museum's department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, who is currently excavating near the village of ed Doma, rejected this. "The dam is going ahead whether we are here or not and it would not benefit anybody if we were not working here," he said.

He admitted that it was sad to witness the end of a lifestyle that has continued, unchanged in many ways, since it was first depicted in the ancient rock etchings.

"You sense continuity from Neolithic times with their representations of elephants, giraffes and ostriches, to the cattle drawings of the Kerma period, and followed by drawings of camels, horses and fighting men," he said.

Ali Yousef, a date palm farmer in ed Doma, voiced fears that the artificially irrigated desert land offered in government resettlement pledges might not be as fertile as that on the Nile's banks, but added: "We have to accept that the dam is for the greater benefit of Sudan."

[Link via Egyptology News: Flooding Nubia - again]
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The El Multaga resettlement site

Telegraph article above says environmental groups estimate the Merowe Dam project will lead to the displacement of about 50,000 people - small farmers and their families, who have tilled the Nile's fertile banks for centuries.

According to International Rivers Network (IRN), Sudan intends to assess four potential hydropower sites in South Sudan, which could result in a sizable hydropower investment program beginning as early as 2007.



Photo (IRN): The El Multaga resettlement site, where some of those being resettled for Merowe Dam (also known as Hamdab or Hamadab Dam) have been moved, is a barren stretch of desert.

IRN says "the 174-km-long reservoir will inundate an area rich in history and antiquities dating back 5,000 years. Project planning has been non-transparent, and people who will be directly affected by it have not had their voices heard. Dissent has been met with harsh government repression." Full story.

Further reading:

Jan 4, 2006: Nubians will be displaced from ancient seat by lake built for Merowe Dam

May 2, 2005: Sudan: The Merowe/Hamadab Dam Project

Darfur genocide Physicians for Human Rights' new report

Via Physicians for Human Rights January 11, 2006:

Just days before Sudanese leaders responsible for orchestrating ongoing acts of violence in Darfur host the African Union summit in Khartoum, a new report from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) reveals, in unprecedented detail, the underreported catastrophic elimination of traditional livelihoods in Darfur, Sudan.

The report, Assault on Survival: A Call for Security, Justice and Restitution, spotlights the obliteration of the means of survival and the way of life in three villages by the Government of Sudan (GOS) and its proxy militia, the Janjaweed.

Note, PHR says the international community should press for a UN Security Council resolution to immediately authorize a multinational intervention force in Darfur under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. This "blue helmeted" international force would supplement the AU's current troop level of 7,000.

Darfur genocide - You cannot say you did not know

Time to watch some short films as a reminder of what has really been going on.

Please turn up your sound and click into Physicians for Human Rights powerful flash movie on Darfur: Lives Destroyed.

The movie was produced early 2005 when Darfur's death toll was estimated at 300,000. The number has now increased to more than 400,000 and rising.

Never again is turning into "Oh no, not again". You cannot say you did not know. We must not remain silent.

Warring parties attending Darfur peace talks must not be allowed to break from negotiations until a consensus is reached on land rights and disarmament. The lives of millions of defenceless Sudanese women and children depend on it. The stability of Sudan is fundamental to the whole of the African continent.

A Comprehensive Peace Agreement for Southern Sudan was signed 9 January 2005 after 2 million Sudanese people had perished in a 21 year long war. See how in National Geographic's incredible flash movie "Shattered Sudan - Drilling for Oil, Hoping for Peace".

Don't miss Protect Darfur's 4 minute film.

View short video Not on my watch from Aegis Trust with soundtrack by Annie Lennox.

And, if you need "cheering up" after digesting all of the above, tune in to Mark Fiore's clever insightful Cartoon that says it all.



Further reading

April 29, 2005 Children's Drawings from Darfur, Sudan

BBC Panorama documentary The new killing fields

PBS Frontline World special report on Sudan

BBC archive on Janjaweed Sudan's shadowy Arab militia

MSF (Doctors Without Borders) report The Crushing Burden of Rape Sexual Violence in Darfur. (PDF file)

BBC archive In Depth Sudan provides an excellent resource and overview of the Sudan crisis.

Update

Jan 13, 2006: Physicians for Human Rights Report "Our most revealing and authoritative portrait of genocide in Darfur"

Jan 15, 2006: Medpundit blogs an excerpt from PHR's grim report on Darfur.

U.N. panel recommends sanctions against Sudan officials and rebels blocking peace in Darfur

This time might be for real. A U.N.-appointed panel accused the Sudanese government and rebels of blocking peace in Darfur, and recommended that the Security Council impose sanctions on key figures from all groups.

The panel's final report, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, also accused all parties to the conflict of committing widespread human rights violations, including torture. It said the government, the rebel Sudan Liberation Army, and militia groups "have shown least regard for the welfare of civilians."

New to U.N. Security Council, Qatar Sides With China

Excerpt from report today on UN news in New York Sun:

"When Qatar joined the U.N. Security Council January 1, some hoped the country's diplomats would be amenable to compromise on issues separating America and the Arab world. But in one of its first acts as a council member, Qatar this week joined China and allied with the government of Sudan on the issue of Darfur."

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How often is the UN Veto used?

"There are five members of the UN Security Council: the United States, Great Britain, France, Russia, and China. The People's Republic of China took the Republic of China's seat in the UN by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 in 1971. In 1991, the Russian Federation acquired the seat originally held by the Soviet Union, including the Soviet Union's former representation in the Security Council. How many times have these parties used the veto?" Find out at UK blog ComingAnarchy.

Also, from a recent blog entry at ComingAnarchy (sorry no direct link):

A Century of Genocide

Armenia (1915)
Ukraine (1932-1933)
Nazi Germany/Holocaust (World War II)
Bangladesh (1971)
Cambodia (1975-1979)
Countries in the former Yugoslavia (1990s)
Rwanda (1994)
Zimbabwe (2000)
[DR] Congo (Today)
Darfur (Today)
? (Tomorrow)

US sending high level team of diplomats and military officials to Ethiopia and Eritrea

Interesting initiative to UN Security Council by John Bolton, US ambassador to the United Nations.

See Ethiopia Watch: US bid to avert new Horn conflict.

Sudan says its Darfur court is 'competent' and would block ICC team from investigating

Last year, to avoid facing International Criminal Court prosecutors, the Sudanese government created its own court to try Darfur criminals, but had come under fire by rebels and rights groups who saw it as a deliberate bid to avoid international justice.

Understandably (surely he believes he and his henchmen's names are on UN/ICC list of 51 suspects) Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir vowed never to hand over any Sudanese to international jurisdiction.

News 24.com report 11 January 2006 quotes Sudan's justice minister, Mohamed Ali al-Mardhi, as saying on Tuesday that Sudan courts were competent:

"We are satisfied with the competence of our judiciary and therefore we shall not allow any foreign tribunal to do this job", he said.

Asked if the international prosecutor had sent teams into Sudan to investigate, Mardhi said: "He has not asked for that and if he has done so, we will not permit such a team to do investigation in Sudan."

Note, the report states Mardhi made the comments after presiding over a ceremony in which rival tribes signed a reconciliation accord that closed a case in which 126 people of the non-Arab Burgud tribe were killed a year ago in an attack by Arab Rizaigat and Turjum tribes on Hamadah village, in Shiairiyah district, about 30km north of Nyala.

Also, Mardhi said that after the Eid Al-Fitr feast, his ministry and the judiciary would set a date for the trial of those involved in the Hamadah attack.
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African Union investigates Hamadah attack

Excerpt from UK Parliament Hansard 27 Jan 2005

"Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make representations to the Sudanese authorities on the reports of a combined attack by the Government of Sudan airforce and the Janjaweed militas upon the village of Hamada, in Southern Darfur, on 16 January. [211457]

Mr. Alexander: We have repeatedly made clear to the Government of Sudan and the rebels that they must respect the ceasefire and abide by the Abuja Protocols, including the Government's commitment to refrain from military overflights of Darfur.

The African Union is currently investigating the alleged Arab militia attack on the village of Hamadah. We await the result of its investigation."

Further reading:

Oct 1, 2005 - War crimes warnings from UN and UK on Darfur Sudan.

Oct 1, 2005 - Important African Union Statement on Security in Darfur.

South Sudan militia group unites with SPLA

Sudan Man blogs news Jan 9 of South Sudan militia group uniting with SPLA and says it is "a big story for securing the peace in Southern Sudan as the SSDF has a strong base in the oil rich Upper Nile region of the South."

Strategy Page Jan 10 says "the SSDF (South Sudan Defense Force), one of the major rebel movements in the south, had formally disbanded and many of its members have joined the SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army), the main rebel organization that has negotiated a peace deal with the government. The SPLA is now calling itself the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), a political, not military, organization."

Slovene president urges UN to warn world about catastrophe in Darfur

Slovene president Janez Drnovsek has sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and some other well-known personalities, calling upon them to warn the world about the catastrophe and to join Slovenia's humanitarian action.

Drnovsek calls upon the UN to use its mandate for measures in Darfur, to call a Security Council meeting and to immediately organize an operation which NATO could join with its big transport capacities.

"We are all responsible for what is happening, History will be our judge. No excuses will help us. Millions of innocent victims will accuse us. There is still time for action. Seize the opportunity," Drnovsek wrote in his letter addressed to Annan.

"Now it is the time; it will be too late tomorrow. Join our small Slovene humanitarian action and this will no longer be a drop in the sea, but the sea itself," he wrote in the letter.

Full report (TV Slovenia/ST) 9 Jan 2006.

Janjaweed women complicit in rape, says Amnesty report

What on earth is this? Women involved in systematic dehumanisation of women to inflict fear and force them to leave their communities, humiliating the men in their communities? Can this really be true? Amnesty International, in a report* dated 19 July 2004, says while African women in Darfur were being raped by the Janjaweed militiamen, Arab women stood nearby and sang for joy.

Read more in following excerpt from 20 July 2004 article* in The Guardian by Jeevan Vasagar and Ewen MacAskill published today 10 January 2006 by Assyrian International News Agency:

The songs of the Hakama, or the "Janjaweed women" as the refugees call them, encouraged the atrocities committed by the militiamen. The women singers stirred up racial hatred against black civilians during attacks on villages in Darfur and celebrated the humiliation of their enemies, the human rights group said.

"[They] appear to be the communicators during the attacks. They are reportedly not actively involved in attacks on people, but participate in acts of looting." Amnesty International collected several testimonies mentioning the presence of Hakama while women were raped by the Janjaweed. The report said:"Hakama appear to have directly harassed the women [who were] assaulted, and verbally attacked them."

During an attack on the village of Disa in June last year, Arab women accompanied the attackers and sang songs praising the government and scorning the black villagers.

According to an African chief quoted in the report, the singers said: "The blood of the blacks runs like water, we take their goods and we chase them from our area and our cattle will be in their land. The power of [Sudanese president Omer Hassan] al-Bashir belongs to the Arabs and we will kill you until the end, you blacks, we have killed your God."

The chief said that the Arab women also racially insulted women from the village: "You are gorillas, you are black, and you are badly dressed."

The Janjaweed have abducted women for use as sex slaves, in some cases breaking their limbs to prevent them escaping, as well as carrying out rapes in their home villages, the report said.

The militiamen "are happy when they rape. They sing when they rape and they tell that we are just slaves and that they can do with us how they wish", a 37-year-old victim, identified as A, is quoted as saying in the report, which was based onmore than 100 testimonies from women in the refugee camps in neighbouring Chad.

Pollyanna Truscott, Amnesty International's Darfur crisis coordinator, said the rape was part of a systematic dehumanisation of women. "It is done to inflict fear, to force them to leave their communities. It also humiliates the men in their communities."
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*Sudan Watch Editor's Note 11 January 2006: Thanks to notes I've received from Eugene Oregon of Coalition for Darfur and Eric Jon Magnuson of Passion of the Present the above item now contains links to Amnesty International's report and The Guardian article originally published July 2004. Assyrian International Agency's article is dated 10 January 2006.

Documents show Sudanese government ordered its security units to tolerate Janjaweed activities - HRW

Human Rights Watch report alleges Sudanese government documents show it was much more closely involved with the Janjaweed than it had admitted, writes Jeevan Vasagar and Ewen MacAskill in The Guardian 20 July 2004.

Note this excerpt from 10 January 2006 article at Assyrian International News Agency:

The documents, which Human Rights Watch said it had obtained from the civilian administration in Darfur and are dated February and March this year, call for "provisions and ammunition" to be delivered to known Janjaweed militia leaders, camps and "loyalist tribes".

One document orders all security units in the area to tolerate the activities of Musa Hilal, the alleged Janjaweed leader in north Darfur interviewed by the Guardian last week.

Peter Takirambudde, the executive director of Human Rights Watch's Africa division, said: "These documents show that militia activity has not just been condoned, it's been specifically supported by Sudan government officials."

The official government line is that it did not arm or support the Janjaweed, though its presence was useful in helping to combat rebels in Darfur.

Further reading

July 17, 2004 A POLICY OF FORCED EXPULSION by Eric Reeves - The Guardian found this Janjaweed leader, "dressed in a crisp white robe and prayer cap," sitting in a plush chair as he "patted his nephew's head and offered sweet pastries" (The Guardian [dateline: Khartoum] July 16, 2004). The interviewer later noted:

"In Khartoum Mr Hilal showed no fear of being arrested. There were no bodyguards and no security checks at the gates of the walled compound. When the interview concluded, he was relaxed enough to joke about the Janjaweed with the Guardian's photographer."

*Sudan Watch Editor's Note 11 January 2006: Thanks to notes I've received from Eugene Oregon of Coalition for Darfur and Eric Jon Magnuson of Passion of the Present the above item now contains links to HRW's report and The Guardian article originally published July 2004. Assyrian International Agency's article is dated 10 January 2006.

Sudan president blasts Darfur rebels

Via UPI Jan 9 - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir called on Darfur rebels to return to negotiations, accusing them of being the enemies of peace.

In a speech to the nation on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, which marks the end of annual pilgrimage to Mecca, al-Bashir said Tuesday, "Sudan's battle is that of development and reconstruction which necessitates great vitality, content spirits and national unity."

He stressed Sudan cannot achieve development without "abandoning warring and terrorism, preventing strife, dropping arms and forgetting enmity and hatred."

He charged, however, that certain bad-intentioned parties are seeking to incite trouble and strife.

"As battle fronts calmed down in the south of the country, new fronts were enflamed by the enemies of peace and unity in another dear part of our country, notably Darfur," he said.

He accused rebel groups in Darfur of obstructing efforts to reach a peaceful settlement in the embattled region.

"There is no more option than repentance and dropping arms and returning to wisdom in order to reach solutions at the negotiating table that would suit all the groups in Darfur," al-Bashir added.

He also vowed to end injustice in all of the country and expand an atmosphere of peace and security and peaceful coexistence between the various Sudanese factions and ethnicities.

Darfur situation very grim and getting worse over last six weeks says UN mission in Sudan

Chair of 53-nation Afiran Union (AU) block, Alpha Oumar Konare, said Saturday he was "deeply saddened" by Friday's attack on AU peacekeepers in West Darfur, close to border with Chad. Extracts from IRIN at ReliefWeb 9 Jan 2006:

One AU peacekeeper killed, ten others injured

A 30-strong Senegalese force was traveling from the town of Tine to their base in Kulbus in West Darfur, when they were ambushed, the AU said in the statement.

The attack is the second ambush against Senegalese forces since November, when four Senegalese soldiers were wounded, two seriously.

AU forces are increasingly targeted by combatants in Darfur, suffering their first casualties in October when three Nigerian soldiers were killed in another ambush.

The AU said they did not know who was behind the attack against them.

UN withdraws non-essential personnel from W Darfur

On Thursday, the UN decided to withdraw all but its essential personnel from West Darfur State, due to a build-up of armed groups on either side of the border with neigbouring Chad.

"The situation is very grim," George Somerwill, chief of public information of the UN mission in Sudan (UNMIS), said. "It has been getting worse over the last six weeks or so."

AU running out of cash for Darfur mission

Last month the AU warned they were running out of cash for the mission and appealed to the international community for more support for its 7,700 peacekeepers.

The force needs US $465 million a year to operate, but so far they only received $330 million.