Sudan has launched attacks on two villages in northern Darfur, the Joint UN-African Mission in Darfur (Unamid) said tonight.

THE United Nations was pulling non-essential staff from Darfur yesterday as Islamist protesters rallied behind Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir over allegations he masterminded a campaign of genocide in the war-torn region.

Dozens of gunmen in jeeps ambushed UN-African Union peacekeepers in the Darfur region, killing at least one and wounding 23 others, a UN spokeswoman said.

DARFUR rebels said yesterday they had attacked an army base in West Darfur, killing a large number of soldiers in a renewal of fighting in the troubled area near Sudan’s western border with Chad.

The African Union today handed over its Darfur peacekeeping mission to an understaffed joint UN force many believe will prove even worse at stemming the violence in Sudan’s war-torn western region.

I WISH to reply to the letter headlined ‘Why Irish troops are in the wrong part of Africa’ from Edward Horgan (December 10).

A SENIOR officer with the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur in western Sudan was attacked yesterday by gunmen who seriously wounded his driver, the force said in a statement.

The UN Security Council unanimously approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur to try to help end the bloodshed in the Sudanese region.