Fresh violence in Western Sudan leaves 21 dead

KHARTOUM, Nov. 14, 2003 (dpa) — More than 21 people were killed and another 40 injured in renewed assaults on the town of Kulbus, in the Western Sudanese province of Darfur, it was reported Friday.

Western Sudan has in recent months been the scene of severe unrest. Diplomats have described the fighting in the area as “ethnic cleansing”, with possibly government-supported Arab militias engaging in a “scorched earth” policy towards villages in the region.

The violence has resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being displaced from their homes, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Mohammed Osman Hashim, the Commissioner of Kulbus, identified those responsible as being affiliated with the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), a rebel group which only recently agreed to extend a ceasefire agreement it had signed with the government.

Hashim, in a statement to the private daily newspaper al-Alwan, claimed that a combined force of up to 2,000 troops of the SLM and other factions had attacked Kulbus, killing, looting and setting houses ablaze