Rebels say government air strike kills 8 in Darfur

Dec 11, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Rebels in Sudan’s western region of Darfur said a government warplane killed eight civilians, mostly children, in a northern village on Monday.

Sudan’s armed forces said the report was a fabrication designed for propaganda purposes.

Jarelnaby Abdelkarim, a spokesman for a faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) which refused to sign a peace agreement with Sudan’s Khartoum-based government in May, said the plane fired a rocket at a house in the village of Hashaaba.

“Eight people from the same family were killed,” he told Reuters via satellite telephone. “Most of them are children.”

He gave what he said were the names of the eight people, including 50-year-old Fatmah Abdullah and seven children whose ages range between three and 13 years old.

The incident could not be independently verified.

An armed forces spokesman denied the report.

“This could not have happened,” the spokesman said. “They (the rebels) are trying to show that they are heroes and show that we are making mistakes.”

Western governments, human rights groups, Darfur rebels, residents and refugees accuse the Sudanese government of routinely bombing villages and arming militias, locally known as Janjaweed, who are accused of killing and raping villagers, burning their crops and looting their homes.

The government has repeatedly denied those accusations.

Experts say around 200,000 people have been killed and more than two million have been displaced since the conflict flared up in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government, charging it with neglect.

(Reuters)