UNAMID mission in Sudan's Darfur has 'nothing to hide': leader

Khartoum (AFP) - The head of the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur insisted Monday that UNAMID has nothing to hide, ahead of a UN probe into allegations it covered up crimes in the Sudanese region.

Mohamed Ibn Chambas said a committee from UN headquarters in New York is due in Sudan as early as next week to examine the allegations raised by Aicha Elbasri, who resigned last year as spokeswoman for UNAMID, one of the world's largest peacekeeping operations.

Her accusations against UNAMID were set out most notably in the American magazine Foreign Policy earlier this year.

"UNAMID has nothing to hide from the committee," Chambas told a press conference in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

He had just returned from New York where he briefed UN Security Council members on the overall situation in Darfur and met with the committee.

The UN in July said it had begun an internal investigation after the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, asked for a probe following Elbasri's accusations.

Bensouda said UNAMID had allegedly "been subject to manipulation", reportedly "with the intentional effect of covering up crimes committed against civilians and peacekeepers."

UNAMID is tasked with protecting civilians and securing humanitarian aid in the western region where more than two million people have been displaced by 11 years of conflict.

Chambas said UNAMID would cooperate with the UN committee, and that the mission's information flow was being handled "according to UN standards".