By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - Aid agencies and Darfur rebels begantwo-day talks on Thursday aimed at improving protection ofcivilians and safe access for relief workers in the Sudaneseregion, days after militiamen killed U.N. peacekeepers.
UNAMID force members were ambushed by about 40 vehiclesfull of heavily armed militia during a patrol in North Darfuron Tuesday, UNAMID said. Seven U.N. peacekeepers were killed inthe worst direct attack on the force since it began work onDecember 31.
"The humanitarian situation is getting worse, it's veryserious. Darfur has the highest number of newly displacedpersons and attacks on humanitarian convoys probably anywherein the world in the last six months," Dennis McNamara, an aidveteran who is chairing the closed-door talks, told Reuters.
"This attack (on UNAMID) was a terrible incident and aterrible sign. ... We want to hold concrete discussions on whatcan be done and who is responsible for attacks and why,"McNamara said.
Senior members of two main rebel groups, the Justice andEquality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement Unityfaction, are attending the humanitarian workshop in Geneva,McNamara said.
Both groups have denied responsibility for the UNAMIDattack.
Up to 200,000 people have been uprooted this year alone byviolence in the western region, while 164 humanitarian vehicleshave been carjacked, according to the Centre for HumanitarianDialogue which is hosting the Geneva meeting.
Eight Sudanese aid workers have been killed and 139abducted so far in 2008, and dozens of humanitarian orpeacekeeping premises have been broken into, it said.
Attacks on U.N. food convoys have forced a cut in rationsto millions in Darfur by almost half since May, and governmentpromises of escorts for aid trucks have not materialised.
"In addition to committing grave human rights abuses, allparties to the conflict continue to obstruct access byhumanitarian agencies," the Centre said.
Some 17,000 aid workers are deployed in Darfur, whereinternational experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5million have been driven by their homes since mostly non-Arabrebels took up arms in 2003. Khartoum, which mobilised mostly,says about 10,000 people have died.
The United Nations refugee agency and U.N. Children's Fundare taking part in the talks, along with the InternationalCommittee of the Red Cross (ICRC), whose biggest humanitarianoperation worldwide is in Sudan.
The Centre said it had been working closely with theAfrican Union and United Nations to contribute to the peaceprocess.
"The idea is to raise the profile of the problem with themovements and meet with the government in a similar process.The government has been very positive and has agreed," he said.
In the past, however, talks on security in Darfur have beenstymied because field commanders who control the situation onthe ground have not been present.
(Editing by Mary Gabriel)
