Sudan denies shelling of North Darfur capital

October 29, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan dismissed rebel statements about a rocket attack on the capital of North Darfur state where are the headquarters of the hybrid peacekeeping mission, UNAMID.

Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) spokesperson, Gibreel Adam Bilal, said that fighters from their group together with combatants of Sudan Liberation Movement’s Minnawi faction shelled Al-Fasher on Saturday with Katyusha rockets .

North Darfur deputy governor Abu Al-Abbas Al-Tayeb Gido denied in statement to the official SUNA any rocket attack the state capital Al-Fasher during the past days.

“We deny strongly occurrence of such attack on Al Fasher and these are false allegations and baseless,” the official said.

He further said that the security situation in the state now is stable, stressing that the holiday of Eid al-Adha, “was one of the best holidays that North Darfur have ever had since the eruption of Darfur crisis.”

UNAMID however did not confirm the claims but said they had reports about usual gunfire in the region. The army and local authority were not reachable and they did not issue any communiqué on Sunday.

JEM rebels are part of a rebel alliance including the SPLM-North which started recently to launch mortar attack on the capital of South Kordofan.

The Darfurian rebel group their attack on Al-Fasher was in retaliation to air raids and ground attacks by the Sudanese army and its militias.

(ST)