"Hybrids" take back night in dangerous Darfur camps

By Opheera McDoom

KRINDING CAMP, Sudan (Reuters) - The soothing tones of West Indian reggae stopped abruptly and the U.N.-African Union peacekeepers left their vehicles to face a machine gun pointed at them by a Sudanese soldier crouched in a trench.

But as more white peacekeeping vehicles emerged from the darkness at the army checkpoint outside West Darfur's capital el-Geneina the Sudanese soldiers, heads wrapped in cloth to shield them from the harsh sandy wind, broke into smiles and friendly greetings.

The "hybrids", as the new United Nations-AU force of 9,000 is called in Darfur, were on night patrol -- an initiative by the peacekeepers' newly energised leadership which some count as their first success.

The patrols began after U.N.-AU troops, known as UNAMID, took over peacekeeping in Darfur from AU forces on December 31. They were designed to tackle one of the most entrenched problems in Sudan's violent west.

Armed men had roamed the camps at night with near impunity while thousands of displaced Darfuris cowered in the dark, too afraid to talk for fear they would be discovered by the gangs who have raped, murdered and pillaged their way through the civilian population for five years.

"We are always hearing shooting and men come in and attack us," said Youssef Abdel Rahman, a leader at the Krinding Camp outside el-Geneina town.

But in the few weeks since the hybrid forces began regular night patrols around the camp, there has not been a single live fire incident and U.N.-AU troops do not generally encounter armed men, who locals call Janjaweed, along the way.

"If you're a criminal you don't stick around to talk," said Nigerian A.A. Adeyemo, a UNAMID patrol leader.