 UNAMID soldiers The joint African Union-United Nations mission assisting in restoring peace and stability in Darfur has called on one of the major rebel groups in the Sudanese region to stop impeding its work, while deploring the harassment and detention of its personnel.
The call from the mission, known as UNAMID, follows an incident on 4 November in which armed elements from the Sudan Liberation Army/Abdul Wahid (SLA/AW) surrounded a UN helicopter which landed at Deribat, East Jabel Marra in South Darfur.
The group prevented the helicopter from taking off for three hours, before eventually releasing it and the UNAMID personnel on board who were on a field assessment in the area.
"UNAMID strongly deplores the periodic harassment and detention of its personnel and stresses that it will not tolerate any attempts at intimidation or attacks on its personnel that are aimed at thwarting the progress of the peace process," the Mission said in a statement.
Since the conflict in Darfur began in 2003, pitting rebels against Government forces and allied Janjaweed militia, some 300,000 people are estimated to have been killed through direct combat or as a result of disease, malnutrition or reduced life expectancy, and more than 2.7 million others have been forced to flee their homes.
UNAMID has been in place in Darfur since the start of last year to try to quell the fighting and humanitarian suffering that has engulfed the region.
Source: UN News
Global 
-
Liberian girls and women should draw inspiration from the all-female Indian police unit serving with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to join law enforcement agencies in the service of their own nation, the top UN official in the West African country said today. more
-
The Convention on the Rights of the Child has become the most widely accepted human rights treaty in history, but 20 years after its adoption, much more remains to be done to turn its promises into reality for millions worldwide, top United Nations officials said today. more
-
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced the hope for increased cooperation between the European Union and the United Nations following the appointment of Herman van Rompuy as the first EU President and Catherine Ashton as EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. more
-
The official number of swine-flu cases in Kyrgyzstan has been put at 61, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. more
-
Iranian human rights advocate and lawyer Shirin Ebadi said she has been receiving death threats, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. more
-
Vladimir Tutayev, an activist from Russia's United Civic Front (OGF), was detained in Moscow today, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. more
-
Jailed Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev is among the winners of the 2009 International Press Freedom Awards, an annual recognition by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) of journalists working in dangerous or repressive circumstances, RFE/RL's Azerbaijan Service ... more
-
Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugee children in United Nations schools in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria have been clicking away with flip cams to create the region?s first ever online video yearbook to mark the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the ... more
-
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Libya have agreed on a $71 million programme to boost cooperation over the next five years to strengthen food security and sustainable development in the country. more
Comments
|
|