Khartoum

Sudan denied hosting rebels from the Central African Republic (CAR) in its war-ravaged Darfur region, the official newspaper of Sudan’s military reported on Wednesday. The Central African Republic has accused neighbouring Sudan of allowing rebels to establish bases in Darfur, from which they launch attacks on the republic.

Darfur rebels called on a former ally to rejoin their ranks on Wednesday as a top United Nations envoy said the government had lost two major battles in the western region, with reports of ”very high” losses. Sudan’s government signed a peace accord in May with one of three rebel factions.

The main former rebel group from the Darfur region of western Sudan took two police officers hostage in the capital on Thursday night after police arrested three of its own members, rebel officials said. Several people were wounded in the confrontation, which ended with the release of all five people, said officials of the Sudan Liberation Movement.

The Sudanese government and eastern rebels signed a draft security protocol on Thursday, raising the prospects for an end to the low-level revolt in the economically important region, state news agency Suna reported. The agency did not provide details of the deal with the rebel Eastern Front, signed in the Eritrean capital Asmara.

The beheading of a Sudanese editor who had angered some Islamists might mark the start of a gruesome new trend, commentators said on Thursday. Mohamed Taha whose decapitated body was found dumped on a dirt road on Wednesday had drawn protests from Islamic groups last year by reprinting a series of articles questioning the roots of the Prophet Muhammed.

Islamic militants who control much of southern Somalia have given the country’s weak government a list of demands, including that the administration reverse its call for international peacekeepers, officials involved in peace talks said on Monday. The Islamic group gave the document to government negotiators after the talks began in Khartoum on Saturday.

Rebels in Sudan’s ravaged Darfur region said that government forces backed by bombers were pursuing a week-old offensive and African Union peacekeepers reported continued fighting. The government significantly raised the stakes in Khartoum’s stand-off with the international community and called on Sunday for the AU to withdraw its troops from all of Darfur.

The build-up of Sudanese troops in the war-torn western Darfur region could lead to a human-rights catastrophe unless United Nations peacekeeping troops are sent to the region soon, Amnesty International warned on Monday. Witnesses in el-Fasher in North Darfur said that Sudanese military flights have been flying in troops and arms to the region.

Sudan’s ruling party has rejected as unacceptable a draft United Nations resolution on the deployment of UN peacekeepers to the strife-torn region of Darfur and issued a sharp warning to its sponsors, the United States and Britain. ”The draft resolution is worse than previous ones,” National Congress Party chairperson Ghazi Salah Eldin Atabani was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir left on Tuesday for the Chadian capital N’djamena to attend the swearing-in of re-elected President Idriss Déby Itno — after three years of strained relations between their two countries. The two leaders will later leave for Dakar to attend a summit with Senegalese President Abdullay Wade.

An international relief worker was killed on Wednesday in northern Darfur, the United Nations said. The aid worker was shot dead by unknown assailants who attacked a car carrying three international relief workers near al Sireaf, 60km north of Saraf Omra, according to a UN situation report issued on Thursday.

Sudan and Chad are ready to work to restore relations, three months after N’djamena broke off ties over alleged Sudanese backing of a failed coup, a foreign ministry spokesperson in Khartoum said on Tuesday. Chadian Foreign Minister Ahmat Allami arrived in Khartoum late on Monday and went into talks with his Sudanese counterpart, Lam Akol.

Twelve people were killed, including two women, as rebels from the war-torn region of Darfur seized a town in central Sudan, officials said on Tuesday. The Sudanese army said the town of Hamrat al-Sheikh in North Kordofan province was attacked on Monday by forces linked to the Justice and Equality Movement.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has escalated his rejection of the United Nations deploying peacekeepers in Darfur, saying they would be neo-colonialists and accusing Jewish organisations of pushing for their deployment. His comments are likely to increase tension with the UN Security Council and provoke an angry response.

Darfur rebels were in Khartoum on Monday for the first time since signing a peace deal with the Sudanese government last month to end three years of conflict in the western region. The delegation from the largest rebel group was due to hold talks with the government on implementing the agreement signed in Nigeria.

The United Nations Security Council has arrived in Sudan with assurances that the UN has no intention of taking over the country and sees the government as a partner in promoting peace. The government has been very reluctant to allow a UN peacekeeping force to take over from the 7 000-strong African Union force now in conflict-wracked Darfur.

Former southern Sudanese rebels wound up landmark talks with the ruling party in Khartoum on Monday, vowing to work as partners but failing to reach agreement on a disputed oil-rich province. First Vice-President Salva Kiir, who heads the SPLM, and former arch-foe President Omar al-Beshir told journalists that they would work together to bring stability to the violence-wracked nation.

Sudan on Tuesday promised to remedy the shortage in food aid caused by the halving of the cash-strapped World Food Programme’s rations for displaced people in the strife-torn region of Darfur. ”The government of Sudan pledges to give 20 000 metric-tonnes of food aid to make up for the cuts in food rations,” Vice-President Ali Osman Taha told reporters.