By SPA
New York : UN Security Council members on Wednesday criticized Sudanese troops for shooting at a UN-African Union supply convoy in Darfur, the first such an attack since the joint force’s deployment to try to end the ethnic conflict in that region.
Jean-Marie Guehenno, UN undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations, told a closed-door session of the 15-nation that a local Sudanese commander took responsibility for the shooting on Monday, which critically injured a driver of the convoy.
The UN said the convoy was attacked Monday night when it was traveling from Umm Baru to Tine in Western Darfur, an area where clashes between Sudanese government forces and rebel groups had taken place.
British Ambassador John Sawers told reporters that council members “unanimously condemned” the attack as they discussed “the obstruction and foot-dragging by the Sudanese government to the deployment of the UN-AU peacekeeping force to Darfur.”
“The rejection of the deployment of the Nordic engineers means that the deployment is further delayed and further held back,” he said.
Sawers said Khartoum’s obstruction to the UN-AU force, considered technical four months ago, has become of a “political nature.”
Guehenno informed the council that no country has agreed to provide helicopters to help speed up the deployment. Currently there are less than 10,000 UN and African troops in Darfur, but the peacekeeping operation is authorized a ceiling of nearly 30,000 military and civilian personnel.
Sudan’s UN Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem reacted to criticism by the UN, denying that his government was involved in the attack against the supply convoy. Sawers said Abdalhaleem had no information about the attack on the ground in Darfur.
Abdalhaleem said Guehenno has “the habit” of accusing Sudan of things it had not done.
“It’s very regrettable,” Abdalhaleem said. “Sudan has cooperated with the deployment of the hybrid force in all aspects, from communications to providing lands for bases.”