'Elders' in landmark Darfur visit

Tuesday, 2 October 2007

A delegation of influential elder statesmen led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu is travelling to Darfur to try to find solutions to the conflict.

The "Elders" will be talking to local community leaders and to displaced people living in camps.

The visit comes three days after an attack on the African Union base in southern Darfur left 10 soldiers dead.

At least 200,000 people have died and some 2m forced from their homes during the four year conflict.

The BBC's Amber Henshaw, who is travelling with the delegation, says they hope to lend their strength to those who are determined to bring and end to the devastation.

But Archbishop Tutu has warned against unrealistic expectations, saying: "The Elders do not want to raise anyone's hopes during this visit".

Travelling in the delegation are the former US President Jimmy Carter, veteran UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and children's rights advocate Graça Machel, better known as Mrs Nelson Mandela.

Following talks with the Sudanese government in Khartoum on Monday, the delegation travelled to Juba in southern Sudan to assess the comprehensive peace agreement signed between the North and South before flying to El Fasher in Darfur.

There they are expected to be briefed on the latest violence, including the most recent attack - the worst on AU forces in the province.

Battle for Haskanita

Details are finally emerging of the intensity of Saturday's attack on the AU base at Haskanita.

AU soldiers told AP news agency that a large force numbering up to 1,000 well-equipped Darfuri rebels attacked the AU outpost at dusk, catching the 157 soldiers and support staff by surprise.

Rockets started falling on the base and an armoured personnel carrier took a direct hit as the beleaguered AU force, mainly composed of Nigerian soldiers, fought off the initial attack.

The rebels then mounted a second attack, using armoured vehicles and firing rocket-propelled grenades. The battle raged until around 0400 local time when the AU forces ran out of ammunition and were overrun.

One of the soldiers told AP: "Once we ran out of ammunition, we all laid down in that ditch."

As morning broke the Sudanese army arrived and the rebels withdrew, leaving behind 10 dead and seven injured.

First reports said up to 47 AU soldiers were unaccounted for, the figure was later revised down to 23 and by late Monday another 20 had reached another AU base, AP reports.

"(The survivors) are in a state of shock", said AU mission chief Rodolphe Adada.

The new Commander of the future hybrid United Nations-AU peacekeeping force in Darfur, General Martin Agwai, told the BBC from Haskanita on Monday that he was convinced the attackers were a splinter group who had broken away from a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), known as the SLA United.

International reaction

In the aftermath of Saturday's rebel attack on the AU monitors at Haskanita, the United States has threatened further sanctions against both the Sudanese government and rebel groups if they block the Darfur peace efforts.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the punitive measures could include travel bans and financial restrictions on individuals.

A Senegalese soldier serving with the UN monitors was one of those killed, prompting Senegal to warn it could withdraw its peacekeeping troops altogether.

Botswana, however, which also lost one soldier, said it remained committed to the peacekeeping operation.

Human Rights Watch has described the killings as a war crime, and has called for an immediate investigation by the AU and UN.