Sudan planes bomb troubled east, rebels say

By Ed Harris

ASMARA, June 24 (Reuters) – Sudanese warplanes bombed targets in the east of the country for a second day on Friday, wounding several civilians in a region hit by recent fighting between army and insurgents, rebel groups said.

Rebels from Sudan’s Eastern Front parade during a conference held by the Front north of Kassala town, near the Eritrean border. (AFP).

Sudan’s military — already under pressure for tactics including aerial attacks in the western region of Darfur — confirmed “search operations” were underway in the east but denied any bombardment was taking place.

If the bombings were confirmed, it would be the first time in years that warplanes had targeted eastern areas where rebels are fighting government forces to press for a bigger share of power and wealth in Africa’s largest country, observers said.

“Today they are bombing,” Salah Barqueen, spokesman of the Eastern Front rebel group, told Reuters in neighbouring Eritrea.

“It is a matter of revenge. It is punishment for the citizens,” he added, saying Khartoum appeared to be retaliating for raids the rebels say they staged on army camps this week.

“They are using the same (method) as they used in Darfur,” he added, referring to the region where a separate war has cost tens of thousands of lives since 2003.

“Civilians take all the punishment — their houses, their livestock. Many people have been displaced.”

Analysts fear eastern Sudan could become the next battleground in the oil-producing nation, where the Darfur conflict has brought international condemnation and a 21-year-old war in the south only ended a few months ago.

REBEL OFFENSIVE

Barqueen said the bombing took place in the Barka Valley west of Tokar, a town 75 miles (120 km) south of Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Fighting broke out in the east at the weekend near Tokar, when Front fighters said they destroyed three government garrisons and captured 20 government troops.

A senior Sudanese armed forces official said search operations were underway in the Dolab Yay, south of Tokar.

“We are using aircraft for these operations,” Asswami Khaled Sabr said. “We are undertaking the operations to see where the rebel forces are…There is no bombing.”

Aid groups could not confirm the bombing reports.

Fergus Thomas, a field coordinator in northeast Sudan for the U.S.-based International Rescue Committee (IRC), said, however, that rebels had appeared elated following their attacks on government bases in previous days.

“As far as I could tell the attacks were hit and run,” he said. “There’s a sense of revelry in the rebel-controlled area. People have been slaughtering camels which is rare.”

Thomas, who travelled from the rebel-held area to Asmara in the past 24 hours, said he had no word on the alleged bombing.

The eastern rebels have held a small piece of territory just next door to Eritrea in eastern Sudan since the late 1990s.

The Front has friendly ties with rebel groups in Darfur and former rebels in the south, whose complaints about neglect of their respective areas by Khartoum are similar.

Taisier Ali, Secretary-General of the Sudan Alliance Forces, a Sudanese opposition party, said the last attack by Sudanese government warplanes on civilians in the east was in May 2000.

“Definitely that would be considered as an escalation,” he said when informed of the reports of bombing around Tokar.

“These are high-altitude flying Antonovs. So whenever they see a crowd of people they just release their bombs which invariably fall on civilians, often at a weekly market.”