From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sun Sep 07 2008 - 13:12:56 EDT
Sudan attacks Darfur rebels for second day-insurgents
Sun 7 Sep 2008, 9:04 GMT
By Andrew Heavens
KHARTOUM, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Sudanese forces attacked rebel positions in north Darfur for a second day running on Sunday, forcing civilians to flee, insurgent groups said.
Sudan's armed forces put out a strongly worded statement late Saturday denying it was carrying out any military activity in the remote area.
But leaders from two rebel factions told Reuters that Sudanese army soldiers, in up to 60 vehicles, attacked rebel positions around the settlements of Dobo and Aradim, about 75 km (45 miles) south-west of the capital of North Darfur El Fasher early on Sunday morning.
Fighters from two factions of the insurgent Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) said fighting had taken place in the same area on Saturday, as well as around two settlements about 150 km north, close to the town of Kutum.
"The shooting has started again now," said said Ibrahim al-Helwu, from the branch of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur, claiming the government was using attack helicopters and Antonov airctaft.
"Hundreds of civilians are fleeing into the desert or the forests. It is going to be bad for them there because there is no shelter."
Al-Helwu on Saturday said up to 60 civilians, soldiers and rebels had died in the attacks north of Kutum. No one was available to verify the figures. Rebels said on Sunday it was too early to estimate casualties from the latest fighting.
Sherif Harir, a senior field commander from SLA's Unity faction, said government forces were trying to push westwards, into rebel-held parts of Jabel Marra.
"The government is trying to clear people from the area, like they always have done," he said.
"They are pushing up into the north. They are pushing into the centre. They want to control the main roads."
The state Sudan Media Centre published a statement late on Saturday from Armed forces spokesman Brigadier Uthman al-Agbash denying that any military activities were taking place in Darfur, which he described as "stable".
INTERNATIONAL COURT
Agbash said soldiers were concentrating on securing roads through Darfur to protect humanitarian convoys from attacks by rebel groups. He also accused insurgents of using settlements north of Kutum in north Darfur as a base for their attacks on aid agencies.
A spokesman for the joint U.N/African Union UNAMID peacekeepers in Darfur said he was checking into the rebel reports of the attacks.
On Saturday, he said government forces stopped a UNAMID patrol from entering the area south-west of El Fasher where the rebels claimed fighting took place on Saturday and Sunday.
Reports of the attacks came as Sudan was stepping up diplomatic efforts to delay or quash a move by the International Criminal Court to indict the country's president for genocide in Darfur.
International experts say more than five years of fighting has killed 200,000 and driven more than 2.5 million from their homes. Khartoum, which accuses the international media of exaggerating the conflict, puts the death count at 10,000.
© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved.
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