A UN-imposed deadline for Sudan to prove it can protect the people of strifetorn Darfur ran out today, but international officials said the violence was far from over.
Nigerian President and African Union (AU) chairman Mr Olusegun Obasanjo said AU monitors had confirmed allegations by Darfur rebels that the Sudan government launched fresh attacks on civilians last week.
"The reported attacks by the government forces have been confirmed to me by the AU chairman of the ceasefire monitoring commission," Mr Obasanjo told a news conference in the Nigerian capital Abuja, where peace talks are being held between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels.
Mr Obasanjo said he had written to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir asking him to ensure all attacks on civilians by government forces and Arab Janjaweed militia stopped, to avoid undermining the Abuja talks.
The comments came on the day the UN had set as a deadline for Sudan to address the crisis or face possible sanctions.
Rebels have already staged a 24-hour boycott of the peace talks in protest at the latest attacks, which they say killed 75 civilians in six villages.
Up to 50,000 people have died since the conflict began in February 2003 and more than a million have fled their homes for fear of attack by the Janjaweed.
Darfur rebels and rights groups say the Arab militia have been mobilised by Khartoum to help crush rebels and have waged a campaign of ethnic cleansing of African villages.
Khartoum denies all allegations of collusion with the Janjaweed. "Actually the Sudanese government is enforcing the ceasefire agreement and does not need to be reminded to do so," government delegation leader Mr Majzoub al-Khalifa said in Abuja.
He said he believed the United Nations would probably not advocate sanctions as his government had helped improve the situation on the ground and talks were still in progress.
Speaking in Nairobi, Mr Dennis McNamara, special advisor to the UN Emergency Relief Co-ordinator on Displacement, said recent attacks in Darfur included rapes by militia of women and girls. "It hasn't stopped. There are enough first-hand, credible reports that this remains a major problem," he told a news conference after visiting victims in Darfur camps. "Security needs to be improved and perpetrators need to be prosecuted."
The UN Security Council will soon receive a report on Darfur from UN special envoy Jan Pronk, who is scheduled to address the 15-member body on Thursday.
Reports from the United Nations and others have made clear that Sudan has not reined in the Arab militias, as the council demanded in a resolution last month, but say it has cooperated in dealing with the humanitarian crisis.
The Sudanese Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs said rebels seized eight workers from the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) and the Sudanese Red Crescent in the area of Shangal Tubaya (Northern Darfur).
WFP spokesman Marcus Prior said three Sudanese working for WFP and five Sudanese Red Crescent workers had been last heard from on Saturday afternoon.