Darfur rebels say kill 410 soldiers in battles
CAIRO, March 5 (Reuters) – Rebels in Sudan’s western Darfur region said they killed around 410 government soldiers and militiamen in two battles on Friday as the Sudanese military tried to open routes between the main cities in the area.
The rebels said they killed about 130 troops and militiamen in one battle in Northern Darfur state and about 280 in the second clash, in Southern Darfur state.
The rebel claims could not be independently confirmed, and Sudanese government officials were not immediately available for comment. Army sources have previously said they would not comment on the Darfur conflict.
Two rebel groups launched a revolt in the arid area a year ago, accusing Khartoum of neglecting the region economically and arming Arab militias known as Janjaweed to loot and burn African villages.
Aid agencies have said that about one million Sudanese have fled the fighting and a humanitarian crisis is looming.
Khalil Ibrahim, the leader of one of the two main Darfur rebel groups, said the two groups undertook joint operations to engage two troop formations which had assembled to break a rebel blockade of the area’s towns.
“We knew they were there and that they were going to try and break the blockade so we fought them and defeated them,” said the Justice and Equality Movement’s (JEM) Ibrahim, speaking to Reuters by telephone from France.
Salah Idriss, a spokesman for the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA), the second rebel group in Darfur, gave Reuters details of the two battles by satellite telephone shortly after the fighting had ended.
“Three thousand Janjaweed and government soldiers attacked us in an area about 25 kms (16 miles) west of al-Fashir in Northern Darfur State… We killed about 130 of them and lost 10 of our own men,” Idriss said.
“There are about 25 of their dead lying on the ground near us now… Some are in military uniforms,” he said, adding that the rebels also had about 3,000 men in the battle.
Idriss said Janjaweed fighters withdrawing from the battle raided and burnt villages as they fled and killed 20 civilians.
The second battle was fought about 25 kms east of Nyala in Southern Darfur state where around 1,500 SLA and JEM fighters ambushed around 2,000 troops and Janjaweed, he said. “We killed about 280 of them there and we lost around 15 men.”
Sudan said on Thursday it hoped the rebels would attend a conference it is organising with all the Darfur leaders so it can disarm all the groups in the area and end the fighting.