OneWorld.net (U.S.)

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan 24 (OneWorld) - New fighting has broken out in Sudan's Darfur region in apparent protest against the Khartoum regime's candidacy to head the African Union (AU). The move comes as the Bush administration prepares to preside over the U.N. Security Council amid calls for it to end the bloody conflict.

Darfur's main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), attacked the town of Golo and prompted a counteroffensive by government soldiers, Reuters quoted an AU official and an aid worker as saying Tuesday. Injuries were reported but not deaths, the news agency said.

The AU, Africa's version of the European Union (EU), has stationed some 7,000 troops in Darfur to monitor a ceasefire that both sides have observed mainly in the breach.

The fighting followed an announcement late Monday by the SLA and another Darfur rebel group, that they were suspending peace talks to protest against Sudan's candidacy to head the AU. The bloc of African nations is sponsoring the Sudan talks, which are being held in Abuja, Nigeria's capital.

The rebels said they would withdraw from the talks if the Khartoum government became head of the AU.

African governments moved to protect the organization's image and to avert a breakdown of the Darfur peace talks Tuesday, when they picked the Republic of Congo (also referred to as Congo-Brazzaville) to head the 53-nation AU instead of Sudan, delegates at the AU summit in Khartoum said on Tuesday.

Sudan's Foreign Ministry said Sudan would take over the AU chairmanship in 2007 after Congo's term ends, however.

In Washington, pressure groups are urging President George W. Bush and his ambassador at the U.N., John Bolton, to take decisive action to stem the violence in Darfur when the United States takes over the rotating presidency of the apex Security Council next month.

The U.S. administration remains the only government to have publicly acknowledged that the violence in Darfur amounts to genocide and it must respond to a deteriorating security situation in the embattled region, according to advocacy organization Africa Action.

''Next month is the moment of truth for the U.S. on Darfur,'' said Ann-Louise Colgan, the group's policy and communications director. ''The U.S. has called the crisis in Darfur 'genocide' and must now have the courage of its convictions to bring this matter to the international community for immediate action, with a priority on civilian protection in Darfur.''

Such protection must include measures to shield women from rape and provide life-saving treatment to victims of sexual assault, which is commonplace in Darfur, according to watchdog group Refugees International.

Women as well as Sudanese and AU police appear unaware that local laws restricting rape survivors' access to life-saving medical treatment have been amended to make it easier for women to seek medical help, Refugees International said in a recent assessment.

''In effect, nothing has changed for survivors of rape in Darfur,'' the organization said in a policy recommendation earlier this month. ''International organizations must take the immediate initiative to inform the women of Darfur of their rights rather than waiting for the government of Sudan to do so.''

In particular, Refugees International said it wants the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) to push the issue as the lead agency on violence against women in Darfur.

Africa Action is demanding that the U.S.-led Security Council ''re-hat'' the AU operation in Darfur as a U.N. mission ''with a robust mandate to protect civilians and humanitarian operations'' and authorize a U.N. peacekeeping force to be deployed to the region as soon as possible.

The group said it plans to reiterate those demands through a national call-in day on Feb. 1 and a ''major mobilization'' the following day.

Resolute U.N. action does not rest on U.S. shoulders alone. Within the Security Council, Russia and China--which have commercial interests in Sudan--have blocked measures aimed at stopping the mass killings in Darfur, according to Parag Khanna, Global Governance Fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank.

Across the United States, more than 100 religious, rights, and humanitarian groups have formed a ''Million Voices for Darfur'' coalition, aimed at focusing public and political attention on the conflict as well as the plight of refugees from the embattled region who have sought shelter in Egypt and other countries neighboring Sudan.

Rebels in Darfur--a rugged territory roughly the size of Texas--launched their uprising in 2003 after complaining that the government in Khartoum had neglected their mainly non-Arab, non-Muslim region. Perhaps as many as 400,000 people have been killed in the fighting and about two million have been rendered homeless, according to aid agencies and advocacy groups.

The conflict grew more complicated with the discovery of mineral wealth under Darfur's inhospitable topsoil.