7 U.N. troops die in ambush

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By Betsy Pisik

UNITED NATIONS | Seven U.N. peacekeepers were killed and nearly two dozen injured in a "well-planned" ambush by Sudanese militias in northern Darfur, Sudan, U.N. officials said Wednesday.

It was the deadliest attack on the United Nations-African Union joint peacekeeping mission since it was created in October.

U.N. officials in Sudan and New York said the predominantly Rwandan contingent was attacked Tuesday by nearly 200 militants - some riding horses, others piloting sport utility vehicles outfitted with high-quality rifles and other weapons.

The United Nations confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the dead include five Rwandan soldiers and policemen from Ghana and Uganda. An additional 22 were injured, seven seriously.

The attack - which U.N. officials say was likely carried out by the government-aligned Janjaweed militia - could make it more difficult for peacekeeping officials to coax logistical and mechanical support from European and U.S. capitals, which have been reluctant to contribute helicopter gunships, air transport and logistical and communications support necessary to cover such a vast and desolate territory.

"Who can say whether this will generate a groundswell" of support for the mission, a peacekeeping official said Wednesday. "Who knows what the reaction will be?"

The U.N.-AU Assistance Mission in Darfur, or UNAMID, was created in July 2007 to absorb the ill-equipped African Union mission in Darfur and expand it into a more robust, better-armed protection force.

But a year later, fewer than 9,600 of the authorized 26,000 police and soldiers have been deployed in the vast region of western Sudan that borders Chad and the Central African Republic.

There is enough blame to go around in explaining the slow deployment: Fingers are pointing at the Sudanese government for micromanaging who may participate in the U.N. peacekeeping and how, in an obvious effort to slow the mission; at the rebels, for failing to negotiate with each other and with Khartoum; at neighbors, for arming and supporting various factions; and at wealthier nations, for failing to provide helicopters and other materiel.

The U.N. Security Council resolution creating UNAMID says the peacekeepers will be predominantly African, a clause that Khartoum has used to reject some troop contributions.

The council issued a presidential statement Wednesday condemning the attack "in the strongest possible terms" and calling for the perpetrators to be tried.

U.N. peacekeepers, Security Council members and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon denounced the ambush.

"The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest possible terms this unacceptable act of extreme violence against AU-U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur and calls on the government of Sudan to do its utmost to ensure that the perpetrators are swiftly identified and brought to justice," said Michelle Montas, Mr. Ban's spokeswoman.

The UNAMID convoy was returning from a meeting with a faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army, a rebel group claiming that former members were killed despite a 2006 peace accord with the government, when it was ambushed. The ensuing gunbattle lasted more than two hours, U.N. officials said.

Peacekeeping officials described the attack as well-prepared and well-resourced - military attributes that would be beyond the abilities of the rebel militias. The area is considered to be under the strict control of the Sudanese army, further indicating the government-affiliated Janjaweed likely is behind it.