Gunmen have attacked police from the African Union and United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur for the first time, injuring one officer by beating him with a rifle butt, a UN spokesperson said on Thursday.
”Four gunmen attacked, yesterday afternoon, a Unamid police patrol, 2km from the Zam Zam camp for internally displaced persons, injuring one officer,” said spokesperson Noureddine Mezni from the UN African mission in Darfur.
The unarmed police were stopped at gunpoint as they returned from a routine patrol at the camp, which is near Darfur’s political capital of al-Fasher.
The officers were ordered out of their vehicles and the gunmen stole their personal belongings and official identity cards.
”One officer was repeatedly hit in the neck by the back of an AK-47 when he hesitated in obeying instructions to get back into the vehicle,” Mezni said in a statement, adding that the victim was taken to hospital.
Two vehicles were seized in the attack, one of which Sudanese police later retrieved in a nearby village, Mezni said.
This was the first attack on police from Unamid since the joint mission formally replaced an AU peacekeeping operation on December 31, Mezni added, declining to specify the nationality of those attacked.
”The first attack was during the beginning of the mission, against a Unamid convoy in January. But this is the first one on police. We are on the ground to help people make peace and not part of the conflict,” Mezni said.
In January, a Unamid supplies convoy was attacked and a Sudanese civilian driver suffered seven gunshot wounds. No peacekeeping troops were hurt.
Sudan said its forces were responsible for that attack and complained that the UN convoy had not announced its route.
It was not clear who was behind the latest ambush in Darfur, where bandits, militia, soldiers and rebel groups operate largely with impunity in an increasingly lawless environment, particularly in rural areas.
Unamid police do not carry weapons and Wednesday’s patrol was operating without protection, which Mezni said was for confidence-building purposes and for easier contact with the civilians they aim to protect.
There are 1 562 police officers serving in Unamid, far short of the 6 372 police that are supposed to deploy as part of the peacekeeping mission. An extra 280 Egyptian and Nepalese police officers are expected to deploy in the coming weeks.
The peacekeeping force is supposed to total more than 26 000 members for a region the size of France, but so far only about 9 000 are on the ground.
The UN says that since the Darfur conflict broke out in February 2003, at least 200 000 people have died and 2,2-million have fled their homes, while the Sudanese government maintains that 9 000 have been killed.
The conflict began when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on Earth.
Last Friday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that without adequate air and transport the peacekeeping mission would be severely hampered. — Sapa-AFP