Darfur elections

The European Union on Wednesday withdrew its election observers from Sudan's Darfur region just days before Sudan's first multi-party elections since 1986, citing security concerns.

"In some parts of Darfur the violence is terrible. The humanitarians cannot access this area. And if aid cannot access, we cannot access," Veronique de Keyser, who heads the EU's election mission in Sudan, told reporters on a one-day trip to the region.

"I feel the security conditions are not guaranteed, not just for the observers, but for the people of Darfur, and if I'm not certain that these elections will allow for credible monitoring, I will not observe them, " she added.

The EU team, which arrived in war-torn Darfur in mid-March, has two observers in each of the three state capitals.

De Keyser says President Omar Hassan-al Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur, has threatened to expel international observers and cut off their fingers and tongues if they intervened in Sudan's affairs.

Elections imminent

The EU's decision comes ahead of next week's first multi-party elections in Sudan in 24 years on 11 to 13 April, which will include presidential, legislative and local polls.

Opposition parties have also accused Bashir's National Congress Party of intimidating observers. The ex-rebel group Sudan People's Liberation Movement said late on Tuesday it would boycott the elections in several states, including Darfur.

The two main opposition parties, the Democratic Unionist Party and the Umma party have yet to make an announcement on their levels of participation.

North and South Sudan were engaged in a decades-long civil war that left around two million dead and some four million displaced.

In 2003, violence flared in Darfur when non-Arab rebels rose up against the government, accusing it of neglecting the region.

The UN estimates up to 300,000 people may have died when the government launched a counter-insurgency.

ng/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Rob Turner