Sudan Rejects Charges of Obstructing Rescue Mission in Abyei

August 11, 2011 – Sudan has denied charges that it deliberately delayed evacuation of peacekeepers seriously injured in the disputed Abyei region. In fact, it insists it acted immediately to rescue evacuation efforts in the region. Earlier, the United Nations had registered its protest against the Sudan Government for unnecessarily delaying rescue efforts.

On Tuesday, four peacekeepers from the Ethiopian patrol team were killed in a land mine blast in Mabok Village, Abyei. One soldier died at the scene of the incident, while three others died later. The incident left seven others wounded. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon criticized the delay in Sudan in transferring the injured soldiers to a hospital.

However, Sudanese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Al-Obeid Meruh, denying the allegations as incorrect, says that his government gave permission to the UN medical evacuation helicopter to fly to Abyei from Kadugli, which are 200 km apart, to rescue the injured soldiers in the shortest time possible. On the other hand, UN peacekeeping force chief Alain Le Roy denies the Sudanese statement, saying the Sudanese troops prevented the rescue helicopter from flying for more than three hours by threatening to shoot it down.

Criticizing the delay as “unnecessary,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blamed the death of the three wounded soldiers on the lack of cooperation on the part of Sudanese troops in evacuation efforts. France seeks an explanation from Sudan on the “conditions of the drama” in which the four soldiers were killed after a land mine blast in the troubled region.

On Monday, the UN Security Council called for an urgent meeting to discuss mounting troubles in Sudan and the conditions in which the soldiers died in Abyei region. Abyei is the bone of contention between Sudan and South Sudan. More than 1,500 soldiers from the Ethiopian peacekeeping force are present in Abyei after they were given deployment permission in June for six months. The peacekeepers have been deployed in Abyei after the governments from both sides agreed to demilitarize the contested border region, which lies in proximity to major oil fields. In another incident involving U.N. peacekeeping force, four gunmen attacked a vehicle carrying five soldiers belonging to the U.N.-A.U. force in Duma village, Darfur, killing one peacekeeper from Sierra Leone and seriously injuring another one. The joint U.N.-A.U. force, criticizing the attack on its soldiers as “deplorable,” said the UNAMID is making all-out efforts to find the perpetrators of the attack and bring them to justice.

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