Saying they hoped African leaders could solve without sanctions what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, the leaders of Egypt, Chad, Nigeria and Libya discussed the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region with the Sudanese president.

Sudan is not afraid of a UN resolution threatening sanctions over the violence in Darfur, President Omar el-Bashir has been quoted as saying.

A US-backed United Nations resolution threatening sanctions over the violence in Darfur will only make it harder for the government to calm an insurrection in the region, a Sudanese official said yesterday.

HUNDREDS of villages in the Darfur region of western Sudan have been abandoned after a year-and-a-half of attacks by Arab militias, known as the janjaweed.

A contingent of Rwandan troops is heading to Darfur this weekend – the first foreign soldiers to deploy in western Sudan, where thousands of people have been killed in violence some are calling a genocide.

Soldiers will be sent to Sudan’s violent Darfur region with a mandate to protect aid workers, monitors and civilians from militiamen – and to use force, if necessary, to defend them from violence that has killed thousands, African leaders said.

THE African Union demanded yesterday that Sudan arrest and prosecute Arab militiamen accused of committing atrocities in western Sudan, but said the violence in the Darfur region did not constitute a genocide.

A heavy sandstorm engulfed most of Egypt today, reducing visibility to less than 500 meters and forcing several flights, including a plane carrying Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir, to land elsewhere, airport officials said.

Sudan's deputy defence minister and 13 other high-ranking military officers were killed when their plane crashed on take-off.