Sudan denies violating truce with western rebels

KHARTOUM, Sept 9 (Reuters) – The Sudanese government denied rebel claims it had broken a ceasefire it signed with them last week in the west of Africa’s largest country, and blamed the violence on local tribes, a newspaper said on Tuesday.

“These operations have been conducted outside the context of the armed forces. They are undertaken by some tribes,” Major General Mazjoub Rahma said, as quoted by the independent al-Sahafa daily.

Rebels of the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) in the western region of Darfur accused the government on Sunday of breaking the ceasefire, forged to end seven months of fighting.

They said the government had attacked an SLA/M garrison with helicopter gunships, but the SLA/M had not returned fire.

Rahma represents the Sudanese government on a three-way committee set up to monitor the ceasefire agreement. The other members are neighbouring Chad, where the ceasefire was signed, and the SLA/M.

He said the issue was raised at a committee meeting on Monday and the government promised to resolve the problem.

Sudan is also currently in talks in Kenya to end a 20-year-old civil war with a different rebel group in southern Sudan. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) has been fighting for greater autonomy for the south since 1983. Some two million people have been killed in that conflict.