SUDAN - North-South Tensions Remain - The Darfur Issue.

In his monthly report to the UNSC, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Feb. 20 urged Khartoum and all Darfur rebel groups to agree to a ceasefire, saying deteriorating security was undermining efforts to help thousands of civilians caught in an upsurge in fighting. He singled out attacks in West Darfur, which borders Chad, heightened tensions in camps for the displaced across Darfur, and continued banditry and vehicle hijackings, including 23 fully loaded UN World Food Programme (WFP) trucks between Jan. 1 and Jan. 24.

Ban painted a grim picture of a worsening conflict seven weeks after a joint AU-UN force took over peace-keeping duties in Darfur from a beleaguered 7,000-strong AU force, and a year after the UN and AU launched a new effort to get a political settlement.

Khartoum has been accused of unleashing the Janjaweed militia to commit atrocities against Darfur's ethnic African communities in the fight with rebel groups. At least 200,000 people have been killed and 2.2m displaced since the fighting began in 2003.

The AU-UN force is authorised to have 26,000 troops and police, but Ban said only about 7,500 military personnel and 1,500 police officers were in Darfur on Jan. 31. At Khartoum's insistence, the UNSC agreed the force would be predominantly African. But Khartoum has refused to approve units from Thailand, Nepal and Nordic states, which withdrew their offer.

Ban said he discussed "the critical issue of the composition of the force" with President Bashir on the sidelines of the AU summit in Addis Ababa on Jan. 31 and "the President's response was not definitive". He said the speed of the AU-UN force's deployment "depends critically on this issue being resolved as soon as possible".

Another critical issue for the hybrid force is the lack of offers of desperately needed helicopters, which Ban said were "indispensable" for the peace-keeping mission. He said Ethiopia offered four attack helicopters, but two more were needed along with 18 transport helicopters. Ban cited other challenges, including the lack of pledges for a heavy ground transport unit and no final allocation of land for bases in Nyala and al-Geneina.