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Zambian troops should have had ‘more visibility’ during fighting over Abyei, top military adviser finds The UN has admitted peacekeepers were wrong to stay in barracks during recent fighting between northern and southern Sudan that left scores of people dead and caused tens of thousands to flee. General Babacar Gaye, the UN peacekeeping department’s top military adviser, found that “we could have and should have had more visibility to deter any violence against civilians,” a spokesman said. The fighting and continued tensions over the fertile, oil-rich Abyei region have raised fears of renewed civil war a month before southern Sudan secedes from the north. UN diplomats reportedly criticised the peacekeepers from Zambia for failing to carry out their mandate to patrol and protect civilians last month. “They locked themselves up for a couple of days,” one was quoted as saying by Reuters. “They were then instructed to come out of their barracks and start patrolling, but they had already lost a crucial 48 hours.” One senior diplomat described their performance as pathetic, Reuters reported. The failings were confirmed when Gaye visited the unit. Michel Bonnardeaux, public affairs officer for the UN department of peacekeeping operations, said: “The military adviser went to Sudan to meet the force commander and troops on the ground. “He found that we could have and should have had more visibility to deter any violence against civilians and the destruction of property. He has given the appropriate guidance to the force commander and troops to be more proactive and visible.” The UN Missions in Sudan (Unmis) troops were themselves under fire at their base, Bonnardeaux added. “In terms of the physical protection of civilians, it must be recognised that most civilians left the area before the peak of the crisis and that Unmis troops and civilians were themselves in imminent danger as the Unmis compound itself was hit.” Zambian peacekeepers in Abyei have been criticised before. In 2008, they refused to allow civilians caught in crossfire between northern and southern Sudanese soldiers into their compound. The UN security council last week strongly condemned the north’s invasion of the Abyei region and takeover of Abyei town, which was precipitated by a 19 May attack on northern and UN troops by southern soldiers. It called on Sudanese forces to “ensure an immediate halt to all looting, burning, and illegal resettlement” in Abyei and asked both the north and the south to withdraw their troops from the area. A confidential UN human rights report obtained by Associated Press warned that the Sudanese army’s invasion of Abyei could lead to ethnic cleansing if the residents who fled were not able to return. More than 30,000 Ngok Dinkas, a black tribe that associates itself with Sudan’s south, fled Abyei when northern troops and ethnic Misseriya Arab cattle herders aligned with the north moved in and looted homes. The UN report estimated that 15-20% of the homes in Abyei were burned in what it called “deliberate destruction” and a violation of international humanitarian law. A south Sudan official said nearly 100 civilians had been killed in recent weeks in the Abyei region. UN troops have previously been accused of failing to protect civilians in the Balkans and Rwanda and, more recently, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. United Nations Sudan Africa David Smith guardian.co.uk