Swift action needed to stop warlords taking over Darfur: UN

The UN has warned that the situation in Darfur is deteriorating fast and unless peacekeeping troops are sent in the region is in danger of falling under the control of warlords.

The world body said that an international peacekeeping force must be fully deployed, negotiations speeded up and political leaders held accountable for their actions as both the Sudanese government and rebels factions are losing control of their forces in troubled Darfur.

The UN's envoy for Sudan, Jan Pronk, said that the government had co-opted paramilitary forces and now "cannot count on their obedience".

"The border lines between the military, the paramilitary and the police are being blurred," he added.

In Darfur, the Sudanese government's failure to end impunity has discouraged both disarmament of fighters and repatriation from refugee and internally displaced persons' (IDP) camps, as "banditry goes from strength to strength", the UN found.

Within the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) "there is a leadership crisis", Mr Pronk said.

"There are splits. Some commanders provoke their adversaries by stealing, hijacking and killing, some seem to have begun acting for their own private gain," he said.

The rebels now control so much of the territory that they must take responsibility for the people there and become political leaders, he said, "or they may turn to preying on the civilians in areas they control by force - and we may soon find Darfur is ruled by warlords".

Tensions have been rising since August and, as of November, fighting and provocation have become more widespread, threatening food production and putting the whole population at risk of becoming dependent on humanitarian aid, Mr Pronk said.

The deployment of an adequate number of African Union (AU) troops was also being delayed by bureaucracy, lack of funding and differing perceptions of the situation on the ground, he said.

(gmcg)