Mohamed Ibn Chambas, head of the African Union-UN mission in Darfur, speaks in el-Fasher, on June 17, 2013. By (AFP/File)
EL FASHER, Sudan (AFP) - Violence is surging in Sudan's Darfur but peace cannot be imposed by force, the new head of the African Union-UN mission to the region said in an interview with AFP.Mohamed Ibn Chambas was responding to criticism that the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur -- one of the largest peacekeeping operations in the world -- is not aggressive enough in fulfilling its mandate to protect civilians.Chambas, a Ghanaian who on April 1 took over as head of about 20,000 UNAMID military and police officers, said the focus is instead on helping to secure a negotiated end to 10 years of rebellion in the region.UNAMID was set up in 2007 under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, which allows for the use of armed force."The mission, frankly, is not deployed in the posture of a Chapter VII," Chambas said in his office at UNAMID headquarters."In Chapter VII you have to have elements that are ready to go into combat, with support helicopters and the wherewithal to engage".There also has to be "a clear mandate to be able to go after the spoilers," for instance the rebel movements who have not signed a two-year-old peace deal with the government."There's not a consensus on operating in that manner," said the softly-spoken Chambas, a former president of ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States."The emphasis is still on negotiation and dialogue, and getting an all-inclusive comprehensive peace agreement."Khartoum signed the internationally-backed 2011 peace deal in the Qatari capital Doha with an alliance of rebel splinter factions.The main insurgents, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), rejected the deal.Abdel Wahid Mohammed al-Nur, who heads a faction of the SLA, said UNAMID is "not able to protect civilians."A diverse group of other critics including Darfur's top official, Eltigani Seisi, have also expressed concerns about UNAMID's ability to safeguard the population.In April, a breakaway JEM faction joined the peace process but its leaders were later killed by the main JEM, an international commission monitoring the Doha deal has charged.The killings added fuel to an already-deteriorating security situation in Darfur, Chambas said.There has been "an upsurge of violence", partly rebel-government clashes but mainly inter-ethnic fighting "which really has been the major source of violence, fatalities and displacement of civilian population."The violence forced an estimated 300,000 people in Darfur to flee this year...
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