Militias say government violating truce, warn of disregarding it

Excerpt from report by Al-Khartoum daily newspaper on September 20, 2003

The leader of Sudan Liberation Movement which signed the recent truce with the government at Absha has accused militias allied to the government of violating the truce by killing 31 civilians and burning down tens of villages in Northern Darfur.

The leader of the movement, Abd-al-Wahid Muhammad Nur, said the cease-fire agreement which was signed on the first of current September “has become, according to Khartoum, like the ink which drafted it”.

While speaking to a London-based Al-Hayah newspaper, he said the government aimed, in announcing the cease-fire, at giving militias allied to it an opportunity to attack tribes which have been accused of rebellion in Darfur and settle those allied to it in their place.

Nur pointed out that 16,000 civilians had been displaced in the last four days as a result of attacks by the militias. He gave the government a short time to confirm its commitment to the cease-fire agreement. He warned that “patience had run out and the agreement will considered as one gone with the wind and not binding on his movement.”