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 KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - The U.N. chief in Sudan said Thursday the government is unlikely to let U.N. peacekeepers in the country anytime soon, and the international community should instead push for the African Union force to remain in the war-torn region indefinitely.
The comments came after Sudanese authorities and a Darfur rebel group that signed a peace agreement with the government clashed in an affluent neighborhood of Omdurman, a city across the river from Khartoum. The incident underscored the simmering tensions in the country.
A U.N. Security Council resolution calls for 20,000 peacekeepers to replace the ill-equipped and underfunded AU force that has done little to prevent escalating violence in Darfur. But Sudan's president fiercely rejects the U.N. mission, and it can't deploy without his consent.
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