A state of emergency has been declared in Sudan’s North Darfur state because of attacks by rebels in which many people have died, a Sudanese government newspaper said on Tuesday.
The official Al Anbaa daily said local governor Osman Yusuf Kibir declared the state of emergency across North Darfur and a curfew in the wake of ”a grave military escalation by the rebels”.
”After the rebel violations, we will not abide by any orders or conventions and will strive to secure the state,” he was quoted as saying.
There was no independent confirmation of his charge against the rebels. Both sides in the 21-month-old Darfur conflict have repeatedly accused the other of violating a ceasefire.
Al Anbaa said Kibir told officials that rebels of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) had violated a ceasefire agreement 19 times in less than two weeks, despite signing a security protocol in Abuja on November 9.
Darfur has been in the grip of a conflict since February 2003 after rebels launched an armed insurrection to protest at what they allege is the political and economic marginalisation of black Africans by the Arab-led government.
Khartoum’s response was to unleash Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed, who have been blamed by western officials and aid workers of killings, rape and widespread violations of human rights.
Since the fighting began more than 70 000 people have been killed or have died from hunger and disease in the area, according to the United Nations, and another 1,5-million displaced.
The newspaper also quoted State Interior Minister Ahmed Mohamed Haroun as saying that 21 policemen and an unknown number of civilians had been killed in rebel attacks on Monday.
The United Nations has described the situation in Darfur as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, while the United States has accused Khartoum of carrying out ”genocide” through its proxy militias.
A US diplomat, returning from the region, said at the weekend that villages in Darfur had been burnt out and abandoned.
”They were like ghost villages, the houses were destroyed, the land was barren and the people were gone,” he said.
A United States representative to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Tony Hall, said people were afraid to return to their villages for fear of further attacks and that their women ”will be raped and their men beaten and killed”. — AFP
