A Darfur rebel faction that has a pact with Sudan’s government accused the army on Friday of bombing a village this week, even while President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was in the region making a call for peace.
Tension has grown in Darfur since the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor said on July 14 he would seek an arrest warrant for Bashir for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Bashir has led a diplomatic campaign to prevent any indictment and called for peace during a visit to Darfur this week, but Minni Arcua Minnawi’s Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) said Sudanese planes had bombed a village while he was there.
The rebel faction, the only one to sign a 2006 peace accord, said the attacks occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday. It said one village was attacked on Wednesday while Bashir was addressing cheering crowds in the nearby city of el Fasher.
”Government planes were bombing the village, Karbala, 40km south of el-Fasher,” SLM military spokesperson Mohamed Dirbeen said on Friday. ”The bombing killed three people and injured eight.”
The army was not available for comment on Friday, the Muslim day of rest. But the army regularly denies reports of bombing, which are difficult to confirm in the vast region the size of France.
A joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur confirmed reports of daily bombing in the past four or five days but could not give further details.
”We do not have forces in those areas,” said spokesperson George Ola-Davies.
Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in Darfur in 2003, accusing the central government of neglect. International experts estimate about 200 000 people have died and 2,5-million been driven from their homes.
Khartoum mobilised mostly Arab militia to quell the revolt. Those militia are accused of widespread rape, murder and looting.
Dirbeen said the bombed village of Karbala was in an area controlled by the forces of Minnawi, who has said Bashir lacks the political will to implement their 2006 peace deal.
Following the deal, Minnawi became a presidential assistant but he left his office in the presidential palace months ago to return to Darfur, where he is in touch with other rebel groups.
During his speech on the day the SLM says the bombing happened, Bashir urged Minnawi to return to Khartoum, promising full implementation of the 2006 deal. — Reuters