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.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon promised to step up efforts to end the four-year-old conflict on his first visit to Darfur today and urged the world to be more sympathetic to the millions of people whose lives have been uprooted.

The new UN humanitarian chief warned today aid efforts in Darfur could collapse if the situation deteriorates and workers are prevented from doing their work.

Sudanese troops barred the UN humanitarian chief from visiting Darfur’s most violence-plagued refugee camp today during his first trip to the war-torn region.

Gunmen have killed two African Union peacekeepers and critically wounded a third in Darfur, the African Union said in a statement today.

Sudan braced for a diplomatic showdown today as the government confirmed it intended to secure the chairmanship of the African Union.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir today rejected the deployment of UN troops in Darfur, saying they were not required and that African Union troops could maintain order in the war-wracked region of western Sudan.

The first group of more than 175 UN advisers and staff supporting peacekeepers in Darfur will deploy within the next few days, according to a joint statement issued today by UN and African Union offices in Sudan.

The chief of the only Darfur rebel group that signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government set an ultimatum today for Khartoum to disarm the feared janjaweed paramilitary group by the end of December.

DARFUR rebels called on a former ally to rejoin their ranks yesterday as a top UN envoy said the government had lost two major battles in the western region, with reports of “very high” losses.

NEARLY a quarter of a million people in Sudan’s Darfur region cannot access UN food rations due to fighting, the World Food Programme said yesterday.

AID workers are getting less and less access to those in need in the war-torn Darfur region even as 50,000 people fled their homes amid a government offensive this month, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Sudan has warned.

Aid workers are getting less and less access to those in need in the war-torn Darfur region even as 50,000 people fled their homes amid a government offensive this month, the UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator in Sudan says.

The United Nations said today that Sudanese government forces have indiscriminately bombed areas of North Darfur in recent weeks, forcing hundreds of civilians to flee their homes.

INTERNATIONAL aid agencies warned yesterday that the humanitarian situation in war-torn Darfur was deteriorating as attacks on aid workers increased.

The Sudanese government has launched a major offensive against rebels in war-torn Darfur in recent days, human rights activists and African Union officials said tonight.

THE build up of Sudanese troops in the war-torn western Darfur region could lead to a human rights catastrophe unless UN peacekeeping troops are sent to the region soon, Amnesty International warned yesterday.

SUDAN yesterday denied Darfur rebel reports that its troops had attacked their camps, breaking a ceasefire and a peace deal signed this month to end the conflict which has killed tens of thousands.

The African Union has accused Sudanese government forces of attacking civilians in Darfur, committing acts of “calculated and wanton destruction” that have killed at least 44 people and displaced thousands more during the past two weeks.

The UN World Food Program suspended food convoys to the Darfur region in western Sudan after rebel forces attacked the market town of Ghubaysh and the government retaliated, UN humanitarian officials said.

CHAOS is looming in Sudan’s western Darfur region as violence increases, order collapses, and the number of desperate people in need of humanitarian aid reaches nearly 2.3 million, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report to the United Nations Security Council.

Sudan has claimed 25 people, including 22 policemen, were killed in rebel attacks on Monday on several camps housing tens of thousands of people displaced by the 21-month Darfur conflict.

Aid workers fled into the bush today to escape fierce clashes in Sudan’s Darfur region before being rescued by helicopter and flown to safety.

Eight Sudanese aid workers have gone missing in rebel-controlled territory in Sudan.

African Union monitors are investigating claims that the Sudanese military bombarded a village with helicopter gunships, driving terrified farmers from their homes, just days before the expiry of a United Nations deadline to end the violence in Darfur.

A UN envoy arrived in Sudan today to examine the government’s efforts to improve security and rein in Arab militia accused of months of atrocities in Darfur, preparing an assessment that could determine whether Sudan will be hit with sanctions.

The United Nations begins a three-day fact-finding mission in troubled Darfur today to establish whether the Sudanese government has fulfilled its pledges to improve security and rein in Arab militia accused of months of atrocities.

CORK-BASED nurse Niamh Casey recognises that she has been given a unique opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of vulnerable people in Darfur, western Sudan.

The UN special envoy to Sudan yesterday said he and Sudan's foreign minister had agreed a plan to tackle the humanitarian crisis in Darfur and avert UN sanctions.