Posted by By AKEEB ALARAPE, Ibadan on
The Action Congress (AC) has commiserated with the families of the seven Nigerian soldiers, serving under the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), who were among the 10 peace keepers killed in an unprovoked rebel attack on their camp last weekend.
•Condoles families of murdered soldiers
The Action Congress (AC) has commiserated with the families of the seven Nigerian soldiers, serving under the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), who were among the 10 peace keepers killed in an unprovoked rebel attack on their camp last weekend.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party expressed shock and sadness at the sheer ferocity of the attack on gallant peace keeping soldiers, who were murdered in cold blood by coward rebels.
The party prayed that God will give the families of the heroic soldiers the fortitude to bear the loss, and grant their innocent souls eternal rest.
It also called for the immediate release of the three missing Nigerians and several other African soldiers, believed to have been abducted by the rebels, and for the provision of the best medical care available to those wounded in the attack.
It called on the Nigerian government to immediately spearhead the effort to review the mandate of the 7,000 troops deployed under the AMIS so they can defend themselves against a band of rogues masquerading as rebels.
'As we have seen in the massive attack against only 200 AMIS soldiers by over 2,000 rebels, it does not make any sense to deploy troops in such a wild environment that Darfur has become without giving them the mandate or the wherewithal to defend themselves.
'We therefore call on the Nigerian government to champion moves to change the mission's mandate so the soldiers can defend themselves against future attacks."
'We also call on the government to honour the dead soldiers, so that their supreme sacrifice to help ensure a more peaceful and safer world would not have been in vain," AC said.
The party also called for an immediate deployment of the larger AU/UN Hybrid force, which has been approved for Darfur by the UN Security Council, to ensure the
safety of the troops as well as the defenceless victims of the lingering Darfur crisis.
'These attacks, as well as others in the past, have shown that the international community must do more to end the Darfur crisis," it added.