Sudan 'threatened to shoot UN helicopter' in Abyei

Sudan threatened to shoot a helicopter trying to evacuate UN peacekeepers wounded by a landmine in the disputed Abyei region, a top UN official says.

Peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said the UN spent three hours trying to persuade the government to let the airlift take place.

Three wounded soldiers died while the negotiations were being held, he said.

The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. South Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest. Photo: Nasa

The peacekeepers were sent earlier this month to Abyei, claimed by Sudan and the newly independent South Sudan.

Within days of their arrival from Ethiopia, their convoy hit a landmine in Mabok, south-east of Abyei town.

One peacekeeper died instantly while another three died later, said Mr Le Roy, the UN Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping.

"We didn't get the clearance for the Medivac helicopter to take off immediately," he said.

"They prevented us from taking off by threatening to shoot at the helicopter."

Mr Le Roy said "no-one can say" whether the delay in airlifting the peacekeepers had contributed to their deaths.

A board of inquiry was looking into the incident, he said.

'Preventing incursions'

Seven other peacekeepers were injured by the blast.

The village where the landmine exploded had been occupied by troops loyal to the government in Khartoum, which has signed the Ottawa Treaty banning the use of anti-personnel mines.

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Northern forces had occupied Abyei in May, raising fears of a renewal of Sudan's 21-year north-south conflict.

After the offensive, more than 100,000 people fled the territory, mainly to South Sudan, which gained independence on 9 July.

But in June, both the north and south agreed to withdraw their troops from Abyei, leaving a 20km (12-mile) buffer zone along the border.

A week later, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to send a 4,200-strong Ethiopian peacekeeping force to Abyei to monitor the withdrawal, as well as the human rights situation.

The resolution established a new UN peacekeeping force, the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (Unisfa).

It also ordered Unisfa to protect civilians and to "protect the Abyei area from incursions by unauthorised elements".

Sudan's permanent representative to the UN, Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, said northern forces would withdraw as soon as the Ethiopian troops had been deployed.

-BBC