UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he will discuss Sudan's Darfur crisis with the Sudanese president at next week's African Union summit.
Ban is also expected to discuss the recent wave of aerial bombardments inside Darfur and an incident last Friday in which 20 people, including five U.N. staff, were arrested and assaulted, Ban's spokesman Farhan Haq said Wednesday.
More than 200,000 people have died as a result of the conflict in Darfur and more than 2 million more have been displaced in the crisis which began nearly four years ago. About 4 million people now depend on international aid.
In a meeting Tuesday with Mutrif Siddig, the undersecretary of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, Ban expressed great alarm at reports of many civilian causalities following the air raids.
The arrest and assault of U.N. staff Friday in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, is not the first against U.N. personnel. The U.N. Mission in Sudan reports attacks against staff in the region have been on the rise in recent months.
Reports say around 20 people from the United Nations, the AU monitoring mission and non-governmental organizations were at a social gathering when local police and security officials arrested them, assaulting some, before releasing them later. Some of the injuries sustained in the attack were serious enough to require medical assistance at a U.N. aid station.
