Darfur rebels said they fought off an attack by Sudan’s army near the regional centre of El Fasher on Monday and had seized another town in an advance in the south of the region.
Fighting has escalated ahead of an expected decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on whether to issue an arrest warrant against Sudan’s President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on charges on orchestrating war crimes in Darfur.
The rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said its forces fought off heavy attacks by troops and jet fighters near El Fasher, capital of North Darfur and the headquarters of the joint United Nations/African Union (Unamid) peacekeeping mission.
Senior commander Suleiman Sandal said JEM also took the town of Sheiria in south Darfur after ambushing a government force 40km from Muhajiriya, which it seized earlier this month from a faction that signed a peace deal with Khartoum.
There was no immediate comment from the army on fighting in either area.
Unamid spokesperson Noureddine Mezni said the mission was gravely concerned about reports of fighting outside El Fasher and had heard ”explosions, shelling, mortars and sounds of fighter jets”, but had no details on who was fighting.
One resident said schools, shops and markets in El Fasher were closed and that people were very tense.
JEM said fighters from both sides died in both attacks, but it was too early to estimate numbers.
There was no independent confirmation of the fighting in south Darfur. But a UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said government planes bombed near Muhajiriya on Monday.
Air attacks in Darfur are forbidden under UN Security Council resolutions, but Sudan’s army says it has the right to defend itself from rebel groups such as JEM that have refused to sign peace agreements.
London-based JEM official Al-Tahir al-Feki said the rebels had not intended to mount a serious offensive. He said JEM teams were touring Darfur to build relations with local communities and had simply responded to government attacks.
Senior government figures told Reuters this month they believed JEM was building up its troops to prepare for a major attack on Darfur cities or oil fields in the neighbouring region of south Kordofan.
International experts say almost six years of fighting in Darfur has killed 200 000 and driven more than 2,5-million from their homes. Khartoum puts the death count at 10 000. — Reuters