Interpreter Killed by Refugees in Darfur

Rioters killed a Sudanese interpreter working with African Union forces during a senior U.N. official’s visit to a refugee camp in the Darfur region Monday.

Jan Egeland, U.N. undersecretary for humanitarian affairs, said the man was killed in an African Union police station.

Egeland and his entourage left the Kalma camp after a demonstration by Darfuris demanding the deployment of international troops spun out of control.

Tensions have increased among refugees who learned details of a peace pact that was signed Friday by the Sudanese government and the main Darfur rebel group but rejected by two other rebel factions.

They had hoped a deal would mean an end to three years of fighting that has killed tens of thousands and driven 2 million people from their homes and into squalid camps in Darfur and into Chad. Many said they were disappointed with the deal, which they feared did not go far enough to protect them.

“This peace is not reality,” said Mohammed Jaama Sineen of Darfur’s largest tribe, the Fur.

In Washington, President Bush said he had directed that emergency food stockpiles be shipped to Sudan to help ease the humanitarian crisis. He also asked Congress to approve $225 million in food aid as part of an emergency spending bill for the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina.

The president said that he had directed that five U.S. ships be loaded with food and proceed to Port Sudan and that he had ordered the emergency purchase of another 40,000 metric tons of food for rapid shipment.

He said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would address the United Nations Security Council today to request a resolution to accelerate deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur.