اغتيال عشرة من قوات الاتحاد الافريقى بحسكنيته 100 ميل شرق نيالا

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Darfur Rebels Attack Base of Peacekeepers; 10 Are Killed
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept. 30 — Hundreds of Darfurian rebels overran an African Union peacekeeping base in central Darfur in a surprise raid over the weekend, killing at least 10 soldiers, possibly kidnapping dozens more and pilfering supplies that included heavy weapons, African Union officials said Sunday.
The raid, which began late Saturday and appeared to be highly organized, was the deadliest and boldest attack on African Union peacekeepers since they arrived in Darfur three years ago.
It came just as the United Nations has been trying to persuade member countries to commit troops and support to a greatly expanded Darfur peacekeeping force. Aid officials now fear some of those countries may have second thoughts about participating.
According to Noureddine Mezni, an African Union spokesman, the rebels swarmed the base just after sunset with 30 heavily armed trucks, surprising the guards and opening fire with a barrage of machine guns that overwhelmed the peacekeepers.
“ We tried to defend ourselves but we were completely outnumbered,” Mr. Mezni said. “Our camp was totally destroyed and they looted everything — guns, trucks, even an armored personnel carrier.”
Mr. Mezni said the rebels, whose precise affiliation was unclear as of late Sunday, came at the camp from every direction with their trucks in what he called a “deliberate and sustained attack.”
After the initial assault, the attackers came back a second time to plunder and loot, African Union officials said.
The base, in the town of Haskanita about 100 miles east of Nyala, a major city in Darfur, is situated on flat scrubland and had been temporary home to about 100 African Union peacekeepers.
Scenes shot by news agency photographers who reached the site on Sunday showed damaged white prefabricated base buildings, at least one burnt-out armored vehicle and survivors of the assault leaving with what few belongings they had left.
The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who only a few weeks ago completed a highly publicized diplomatic mission to Darfur to lay the basis for the expanded peacekeeping force and for new peace talks to be held in Libya, issued a statement condemning the attack and called for “the perpetrators to be held fully accountable for this outrageous act.”
The attack was the most dramatic display yet of the new kind of chaos that is engulfing the Darfur region of Sudan, where the conflict has morphed from a rebellion and brutal counterinsurgency into a free-for-all between dozens of armed groups, with aid workers and peacekeepers increasingly in their sights.