Darfur Monitors Halt Work Under Fire

African Union truce monitors suspended operations in South Darfur state after one of their helicopters came under fire.

A senior African Union official, who asked not to be named, did not say how long the suspension would last. South Darfur state makes up about one-third of the Darfur region.

The African Union has more than 800 troops in Darfur, trying to monitor cease-fire violations in a region about the size of France. It has also been mediating faltering peace talks in Nigeria between the Sudanese government and rebels.

Each side has regularly accused the other of violating an April cease-fire, and it was not clear who had fired at the helicopter.

Meanwhile Monday, rebel groups corroborated a claim by a previously unknown rebel group, the Sudanese National Movement for the Eradication of Marginalization, that it had attacked an oil-pumping station Saturday.

Fifteen people died in the violence, police said, although an oil ministry official in Khartoum said operations at the field had not been affected.

Sudan produces 320,000 barrels of crude oil a day and hopes to raise that to more than half a million next year.

At the peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja, Libyan peace brokers met rebel and Sudanese government delegates.

The rebellion began last year, when rebels accused Khartoum of neglecting the arid western region where tribal tensions have long simmered over scarce resources. The fighting has displaced 1.6 million people and killed tens of thousands.