UNITED NATIONS—Two top United Nations officials painted a bleak picture of the situation in Sudan's western Darfur region Friday, saying peace remained elusive after five years of hostilities.
U.N. special envoy to Darfur Jan Eliasson told the Security Council the region's disparate rebel groups have only made limited progress to prepare for new peace negotiations.
"They are still to a great degree not ready to engage in substantive talks," he said in a progress report. "The movements still lack consolidated positions and have not yet formed a joint team."
Jean-Marie Guehenno, U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations, also sounded pessimistic, saying a planned 26,000-strong peace force faced continued obstacles in deploying and might have to operate as hostilities continued.
He also warned the council that the crisis in neighboring Chad and atmosphere of mistrust between Sudan and its neighbor risked widening the Darfur conflict beyond Sudan's borders.
The United Nations has been pushing the rebels and Sudan's government to hold new negotiations after a first round in Libya last October made little headway.
Some rebel groups have signed a deal with the Sudanese government but the insurgents have split into many factions and others are still fighting for a renewed peace process.
"While the people of Darfur cannot wait for ever, we will have to accept that the steps toward an eventual peace agreement will be incremental and will take longer than we had initially hoped," Eliasson said.
He also said it was time to appoint a full-time joint AU-U.N. chief mediator in Sudan. The Dutch government said this week it would be willing to host a new round of peace talks.
International experts estimate that around 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million been driven from their homes in the conflict, which has prompted the world's largest humanitarian operation. Khartoum says the number of dead is much lower and accuses the West of exaggerating.
Risk of Regional Conflict
The United Nations and the African Union are due to deploy a joint peacekeeping force in Darfur but it has been delayed by a shortage of helicopters and disagreements with Khartoum over its composition. Only 9,000 troops are currently in place.
Thailand and Nepal have offered units to the U.N.-AU force but Khartoum has yet to accept them. "We urgently require a definitive decision from the government on the inclusion of the Thai and Nepalese units," Guehenno said.
He also warned that the force, called UNAMID, might be deployed before a real cease-fire has been achieved across Darfur, an area roughly the size of France.
"The council must be prepared for the eventuality that UNAMID is forced to operate in an environment of continued hostilities," he said.
Guehenno said rising Chad-Sudan tensions were a serious concern and showed the conflict could become regional.
"Continuing accusations by both governments ... increase the climate of mistrust, fuel tensions between the two countries, and once again demonstrate the potential for a conflict of international dimensions in the area," he said.
Chad's government accuses Khartoum of supporting rebels who tried to oust President Idriss Deby last weekend, while Sudan's government says Chad's leaders are backing rebels in Darfur. The two governments reject each others' accusations.
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