The outgoing U.N. peacekeeping chief in Sudan's Darfur region said the world should no longer consider the long-running conflict a war after a sharp decline in violence and deaths over the past year, AP reported. U.N. peacekeepers have recorded a sharp decline in fatalities from violence. There were 16 deaths in June, compared to an average 130 deaths per month last year. «We can no longer talk of a big conflict, of a war in Darfur,» Adada told The Associated Press this week before stepping down as head of the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, or UNAMID. «I think now everybody understands it. We can no longer speak of this issue. It is over,» he said. President Barack Obama's new envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, caused an outcry in June when he said the violence in Darfur no longer amounted to genocide and then suggested easing sanctions against the Sudanese government. Adada said the decline in violence in Darfur is an opportune time to push forward a peace process that so far has had no success. During a visit to Darfur in July, Gration appealed to refugees in one of the largest camps to return to their villages. He also suggested easing sanctions against Sudan, telling a Senate hearing that month there was no longer any evidence to support the U.S. designation of Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism. His comments were welcomed in Sudan, which has always maintained the death toll in Darfur was greatly exaggerated and said it was fighting a counterinsurgency, not a war. -- SPA
