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/ 27 September 2007

Aid agency reduces Darfur operations after attacks

Relief agency World Vision has scaled back its operations in South Darfur after its staff suffered three attacks within a week, an agency official said on Thursday. ”World Vision has not suspended operations — we have scaled down,” Michael Arunga, communications manager for World Vision, told Reuters. ”There have been three attacks in one week.”

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/ 24 September 2007

Attacks threaten Oxfam’s Darfur operation

Oxfam could withdraw from Sudan’s violent Darfur region if security worsens, with attacks on its staff there hindering one of the aid agency’s largest operations, its country director said on Monday. Caroline Nursey, who has worked in Sudan for four years, also said the crisis in Darfur had drained donor money from other areas of Sudan

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/ 20 September 2007

Rebel group says Darfur battle kills 45

A rebel leader from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region said his fighters defeated a government battalion on Wednesday in a three-hour battle that killed 45 people. Sudan Liberation Army faction chairperson Ahmed Abdel Shafie said one of his units attacked government soldiers stationed in the village of Dobow in the central Jabel Marra region.

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/ 17 September 2007

UN: Violence is increasing in Darfur camps

Violence is increasing in camps for displaced people in Darfur, where nearly a quarter million people have been displaced so far this year, a United Nations report said on Monday. The United Nations said rising violence in the overcrowded camps of the remote region of western Sudan was making it harder to carry out humanitarian aid work.

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/ 12 September 2007

Violence flares ahead of Darfur peace talks

A senior Darfur rebel leader accused the Sudanese government on Wednesday of trying to grab land ahead of October peace talks, and threatened to pull out of the talks unless attacks stopped. Justice and Equality Movement leader Khalil Ibrahim said the violence in the remote west would make it impossible for him to travel to negotiations with Khartoum.

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/ 10 September 2007

Sudan bombs north Darfur town

Sudanese government aircraft bombed a rebel-held town in Darfur on Monday, insurgent groups said, hours after the government said it was investigating a rebel raid on one of its bases last month. Reports of the attack came seven weeks before rebel groups and the Khartoum government are set to meet for peace talks.

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/ 6 September 2007

Darfur peace talks set for October

Sudan and Darfur rebels will hold talks on October 27 in Libya to push for peace ahead of the expected deployment of a 26 000-strong peace force in Darfur, a United Nations-Sudanese government statement said on Thursday. The statement said the UN ”expresses the hope that parties will cooperate fully” with UN and African Union mediators.

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/ 6 September 2007

Sudan has drones, is pursuing missiles

Sudan has developed unmanned surveillance planes, is developing missiles, and is now ”self-sufficient” in conventional weapons, a Sudanese state news agency reported. The rare public announcement on Sudan’s military capability gave no details on how far missile development had progressed or where the surveillance drones might be used.

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/ 31 August 2007

France, UK raise spectre of sanctions on Darfur

The leaders of France and Britain on Friday revived the spectre of sanctions against Khartoum if progress is not made on a Darfur ceasefire and upcoming political talks. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a joint editorial in the Times in London that sanctions could be used to bring peace to Darfur.

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/ 30 August 2007

Rebels accuse govt of bombing Darfur

Darfur rebels accused the government of bombing South Darfur on Thursday, the latest attack in an aerial campaign that has driven thousands of people from their homes over the past month. ”There is aerial bombardment on a daily basis — bombing by MiG 29 and by Antonov,” Justice and Equality Movement commander Abel Aziz el-Nur Ashr Ashr said.

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/ 22 August 2007

Sudan floods death toll reaches 89

Eighty-nine people have died in flooding in Sudan as heavy rains that washed away homes and spread water-borne disease continue to batter the country, a government official said on Wednesday. Sudanese officials have described this year’s floods as the worst in living memory with unexpectedly early rains destroying more than 70 000 homes.

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/ 21 August 2007

Sudan forces attack volatile Darfur camp

Sudanese forces surrounded and attacked Darfur’s most volatile camp on Tuesday to flush out rebels they say are behind recent attacks on police, an army source and camp residents said. The move on Kalma camp, home to 90 000 people, follows two attacks in the past week on police posts in South Darfur.

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/ 10 August 2007

Sudan investigates 33 over anti-govt plot

Sudanese security forces have handed 33 suspects accused of trying to overthrow the government to the Justice Ministry for investigation, state news agency the Sudanese Media Centre said on Friday. Security forces last month arrested former army officers as well as members of two leading opposition political parties, accusing them of trying to overthrow the government.

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/ 2 August 2007

Dozens killed in Darfur tribal fighting

At least 65 people have been killed in renewed tribal clashes in Sudan’s Darfur, a tribal leader said on Thursday, two days after the United Nations approved a massive peacekeeping force for the war-wracked region. The fighting, in which another 25 people were wounded, took place in Southern Darfur on Tuesday.

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/ 26 July 2007

Floods kill dozens in Sudan

Flash floods and rains in Sudan have killed 59 people and damaged 35 000 homes, Awad Widatallah Hussein, spokesperson for the government’s emergency response committee, said on Thursday. Officials described the floods as the worst in memory.

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/ 25 July 2007

Thousands more Darfuris flee homes, strain camps

Violence in Darfur has forced 25 000 more people from their homes and is straining the capacity of camps swollen with refugees fleeing conflict in western Sudan, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The United Nations said there are more than 200 000 Darfuri refugees in neighbouring Chad and 140 000 Chadians displaced by the Darfur conflict.

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/ 19 July 2007

Sudan bans reporting on alleged coup plot

Sudan’s Justice Ministry has banned all media reporting on the case of 17 people accused of trying to overthrow the government, the latest in a string of such restrictions. Local papers on Thursday said the Prosecutor General had issued a decree ”banning all media outlets, written or broadcast, from any reporting or comment on the attempted sabotage”.

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/ 13 July 2007

Sudan bombs civilian targets in Darfur, says US envoy

The Sudanese government has resumed bombing civilian targets in the war-ravaged western region of Darfur, the United States special envoy for Darfur said on Friday. ”After a halt in the bombing between the beginning of February and the end of April in 2007, the Sudanese government has resumed bombing in Darfur,” Andrew Natsios said.

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/ 11 July 2007

AU faces serious funding crunch in Darfur

African Union peacekeepers in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region are facing a serious funding crunch that has affected morale ahead of deployment of a planned United Nations-AU force, the head of the joint mission said on Wednesday. Under sustained pressure, Sudan agreed last month to a combined UN-AU peacekeeping force of 20 000 troops.

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/ 21 June 2007

Darfur rebels accuse Khartoum of attacks

Darfur rebels on Thursday accused Sudanese government troops of attacking their forces close to the Chadian border, saying three civilians were abducted following the raid. ”Government forces attacked us on Monday evening near Sirba,” local commander from the rebel Justice and Equality Movement Abdel Majid Duda Nur said.

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/ 18 June 2007

Sudan ready for Darfur peace talks, says minister

Sudan is ready to attend Darfur peace talks under joint United Nations-African Union mediation to resolve a conflict that has driven 2,5-million people from their homes, its foreign minister said on Monday. The rebels have split into more than a dozen groups since a peace deal last year signed by only one of three rebel negotiating factions.