U.N. officials sound grim note on Darfur

UNITED NATIONS —  Two top U.N. officials said Friday that the continuing conflict in Darfur had thwarted a yearlong effort to start peace talks and deploy a peacekeeping force there, while new conflict in neighboring Chad could ignite a regional war.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno and the special envoy for Sudan, Jan Eliasson, told the Security Council that increasing clashes between Sudanese troops and rebels in western Darfur made it difficult to deliver aid to the area and deploy peacekeepers. Rebels are also squabbling among themselves, delaying a round of peace talks.

“The situation is running out of control,” said Eliasson, who recently returned from an effort to restart negotiations that were suspended late last year. “We cannot get the political talks going if we don’t have an atmosphere, a climate in which talks can take place.”

As the pair spoke, Sudanese troops bombed and attacked three villages in Darfur, killing dozens of civilians and burning houses, according to Gen. Martin Agwai, the Nigerian commander of a joint U.N.-African Union force in the region.

Guehenno said the new clashes made it harder for his force to protect civilians without getting involved.

“In the midst of a war you have to fight on all fronts,” he said. “We don’t have the robustness to do that.”

Only about 9,000 troops and police of a planned force of 26,000 have been deployed, due to a shortage of equipment and objections from Khartoum.

Guehenno said that a proxy war between Sudan and Chad through rebel groups threatened to destabilize the region. Rebels attempted a coup in Chad last week. Chad, which accuses Sudan of backing the rebels, is in turn accused of supporting rebels in Darfur.

Eliasson acknowledged that the latest assessment was the bleakest in years. The bits of good news offered seemed paltry: Sudan is ready to sign an agreement governing the U.N.-African Union force in the next few days, Ethiopia has offered five of 24 helicopters needed for the force, and rebels have consolidated into five groups.

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maggie.farley@latimes.com