KHARTOUM, May 8: UN envoy Jan Egeland was forced to flee a Darfur refugee camp on Monday when a protest by displaced people demanding international protection turned violent and left one person dead. As unrest flared, Sudan announced that on May 15 it would start disarming the government-backed militias held responsible for much of the killing in Darfur as it seeks to implement the landmark peace deal it signed last Friday with a major rebel faction.

Separately, US President George W. Bush said he would send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the UN Security Council on Tuesday to seek a rapid deployment of peacekeepers to the western Darfur region.

As sides sought to bolster the newly-inked peace plan, the violence that broke out during Egeland’s visit underscored the precarious situation in Darfur after three years of war.—AFP