Sudanese government forces and allied militias attacked bases of a new rebel alliance in Darfur despite a ceasefire in the violent west, officials and rebels said on Saturday.
An unpopular African Union-mediated peace deal was signed in May by only one of three rebel negotiating factions. Many leaders who did not sign formed a new group called the National Redemption Front (NRF), which began military operations earlier this month in the Kordofan area neighbouring Darfur.
”Yesterday [Friday] all day and until the evening the government of Sudan with the Janjaweed attacked Jabel Moun and KulKul, north of el-Fasher,” Abu Bakr Hamid al-Nur, a rebel NRF commander, told Reuters from Darfur on Saturday.
Jabel Moun is a mountainous area on the Sudan-Chad border. Kulkul is 35km north of Darfur’s main town el-Fasher.
Al-Nur said the government used Antonov planes and three attack helicopters to bombard the areas, forcing hundreds of civilians to flee their homes and seek refuge in el-Fasher.
The Sudanese armed forces confirmed clashes in both areas, but denied using any planes or Janjaweed militias.
”We moved an administrative force from el-Fasher, which was ambushed by the NRF near Kulkul,” said an army spokesperson, adding one soldier was killed and another injured.
”In Jabel Moun we have security forces at the entry and exit points to stop rebel forces who are looting from civilians and these clashes are happening daily,” he added.
Sudan armed mostly Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to quell a revolt begun in early 2003 by mostly non-Arabs who accused Khartoum of neglect. Under the May peace deal, the government has pledged to disarm those militia and denies any current involvement with them.
The AU and United Nations issued a joint statement late on Friday condemning the violence in Jabel Moun and blaming the government and Janjaweed for the attack on NRF.
”[We] are particularly concerned about the fate of the civilian population in the area,” the statement said. ”[We] call on the parties involved in the fighting to abide by what has been agreed and to guarantee the safety of the civilians.”
The joint AU-UN statement said the parties to the May deal had refused to allow non-signatories to sit on the ceasefire commission, which investigates violations in Darfur to determine who is responsible.
”This is typical of the kind of incidents which should normally be investigated by the ceasefire commission … but the refusal of the signatories to have all-inclusive commissions makes prompt and thorough investigations difficult,” the statement said.
The cash-strapped AU force backs a UN takeover of its struggling Darfur peace-monitoring mission and has become increasingly ineffective since the peace deal, as fighting escalated between rebels many of whom disavow the deal.
US advocacy group Refugees International said in a statement on Friday that ”the AU appears paralysed, demoralised and unable to provide the one condition that the two million displaced people in Darfur crave — security.” — Reuters