Global Policy Forum

The Sudanese government has failed to comply with a deadline to stop fighting in Darfur, an African Union spokesman said Sunday, describing fresh helicopter strikes against a village in the southern part of the region. The African Union force commander in Darfur, Maj. Gen. Festus Okonkwo of Nigeria, told mediators that government forces had attacked the village of Labado on Saturday, said Assane Ba, a spokesman for the union. "Things have changed," Mr. Ba said. "The latest report from General Okonkwo is that the Sudan government has not complied. He said government helicopters attacked Labado and burned the place yesterday."

General Okonkwo had said earlier that the Sudanese government was complying with the deadline, which passed Saturday. The African Union had told Sudan to stop hostilities or face having the matter go to the United Nations Security Council. Sudan said Sunday that it would immediately and unconditionally cease hostilities in Darfur and asked the United Nations and the African Union to request that rebel forces do the same. "Yes, we will inform our forces in Darfur immediately to stop any fighting, so we will not fire unless we will be attacked by the other side," Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, after meeting Western diplomats and officials with the United Nations and African Union. African Union mediators had a meeting on Sunday with President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, who is also chairman of the African Union, but details of their discussions were not immediately available.

Labado, which had been in rebel control, is about 40 miles east of Nyala, the capital of Southern Darfur. Thousands of people are fleeing the fighting there, streaming toward Nyala and bringing reports of government airstrikes. They say government forces and Arab militiamen attacked their villages and in some cases set up bases there. Aid workers in Darfur say rebels have been attacking relief convoys on the road between Nyala and El Fasher, where two Save the Children workers were killed recently. Mr. Ba said the African Union was trying to persuade the feuding parties to stop cease-fire violations and restart peace talks suspended a week ago after the two main rebel groups walked out to protest a renewed government offensive.

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