Chad denies accusation of shelling Sudan’s Darfur

Jan 30, 2006 (N’DJAMENA) — Chad denied its army had shelled an area in Sudan’s volatile Darfur region, and rebels operating there Monday said 74 people had died in fighting.

Saturday, Sudan’s military spokesman said an area in the western border state of West Darfur came under artillery shelling from Chadian territory that lasted for one and a half hours. He didn’t specify whether the attack was carried out by Chadian soldiers or a rebel group.

The border between the two countries is tense and each country accuses the other of supporting rebel movements against them.

Chadian Information Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor told national radio late Sunday Chadian troops weren’t involved in the attack, and Darfur rebels don’t have rear bases in Chad from which they could attack Sudan.

Sudan’s accusation “aims, in fact, at hiding the aggression against Chad from the forces within Sudanese territory, and trained by Sudanese government,” he said.

Fighters from Darfur’s third-largest rebel group attacked and captured the town of Armankul, northwest of the town of Geneina, capital of West Darfur state Saturday, said Hassan Khamis, secretary general of the rebel National Movement for Reform and Development, or MNRD.

“A counter attack was carried by the Sudanese forces in coalition with Chadian rebels…aboard 23 vehicles, supported by a helicopter,” Khamis told The AP.

“Casualties are of 72 deaths in the side of the government forces and their allies and 17 prisoners. Seven wounded and 2 deaths, in the MNRD’s side.”

(ST/AP)