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Darfur Rebels Report Casualties in Town Attacked by Government

By VOA News
09 October 2007

A Darfur rebel group is reporting casualties and heavy damage in a town it says was attacked by the Sudanese army and allied militias Monday.

Officers of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army say at least 40 civilians in the town of Muhajeria have been killed, and that half of the town has been destroyed.

The commander of the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, General Martin Luther Agwai confirmed that Sudanese aircraft bombed the town.

There has been no independent confirmation of the casualty total, and no comment from the Sudanese government or army.

Muhajeria is a base for an rebel SLA faction that signed a peace deal with the government in May 2006.

In another development, the rights group Amnesty International says the Sudanese army is planning to attack rebel-controlled parts of North Darfur. The London-based group said Tuesday it has received reports of Sudanese troops gathering in at least six towns in the area, including Tine, Kornoy, Um Baru, and Kutum.

The SLA's humanitarian coordinator, Suleiman Jammous, told VOA today that the current fighting jeopardizes peace talks between rebels and the government set to begin later this month in Libya.

On Monday, the British government warned Darfur rebel groups they could be excluded from the Darfur peace process if they boycott the Libya talks. But Jammous says Darfur must have some stability before the rebels sit down with the government.

The town attacked Monday, Muhajeria, is about 60 kilometers west of Haskanita, a town the United Nations says was burned down in the past few days. In a statement, the U.N. did not assign blame for the fire but noted that Haskanita is under the control of Sudanese government forces. The Sudanese army has denied that its forces destroyed the town.

Haskanita was burned about a week after gunmen assaulted a nearby African Union peacekeeping base, killing 10 soldiers. AU and Sudanese officials blame Darfur rebels for that attack, while rebels blame the government.

Darfur rebel groups launched their fight against the government in Khartoum in 2003. Since then, fighting between the rebels, government, and militia groups has killed an estimated 200,000 people, and displaced more than two million others.