Violence is surging in Sudan's south and in the Darfur region despite years of global attention, UN special envoy Jan Pronk told the Security Council yesterday.
In the south, reconstruction, development and security initiatives have yet to get off the ground more than 14 months after a peace agreement ending two decades of civil war there, while in a separate conflict in Darfur, a cease-fire is being completely ignored and killing continues, Mr Pronk said.
Sudan's government reached a peace deal with southern rebels in January 2005, and the Security Council approved a peacekeeping mission for the south two months later. It has been slowly deploying ever since and is now up to 80 per cent of full strength.
But former rebel units have yet to be disbanded, weapons remain in abundant supply, and violent clashes between rival armed groups are on the rise as a result, according to Mr Pronk.
Peacekeepers cannot step in because the security mechanism envisioned by the peace deal has not begun functioning and the government has imposed restrictions on UN troop movements in the affected areas, he said.
If the south's problems are not addressed, "people will ask what difference peace has made for them. Frustration will mount. Violence will increase," he predicted.
In Darfur, fighting still rages between government and rebel forces despite a cease-fire and the government is still supporting Arab militias conducting ethnic cleansing in "village after village".
To quell the violence in Darfur, he called on the international community to quickly beef up an African Union peacekeeping force of some 7,000 troops already there, and not wait until that force is reconfigured as a UN force in a move expected later this year.
The African Union's Peace and Security Council voted this month to extend its mission beyond September, but affirmed in principle its plan to eventually hand off to a UN force.
Sudan's government, however, has said it does not want UN troops in Darfur until a peace deal is reached in talks taking place in the Nigerian capital Abuja.