Sudan’s Darfur rebels kill mayor, kidnap 10 children: report

KHARTOUM, Nov 5 (AFP) — Darfur rebels killed a mayor, abducted 10 children and injured four policemen, in fresh unrest in the troubled western region of Sudan, news reports and police said Friday.

A member of Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) walks with his rifle at Ashma village 30 km (19 miles) from Nyala, south Darfur, October 6, 2004.

Haj Aseel Yassin, mayor of a town some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from El-Feshir, the capital of North Darfur state, was shot dead in a rebel raid on his house early Thursday, Akhbar Al-Youm daily said, quoting witnesses.

Akhbar Al-Youm said Yassin’s wife was injured in the attack, while locals said the mayor may have been targeted due to his stance against the rebels.

Local authorities have reported the incident to the African Union ceasefire commission charged with monitoring a fragile truce between government forces and the two main rebel groups in Darfur, it said.

Rebels of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) are locked in a 21-month conflict with the government, which they accuse of marginalizing their region.

Tens of thousands of people have died, some 1.4 million displaced from their homes and a further 200,000 forced into refuge in neighboring Chad, creating what the United Nations says is the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian crisis.

In a separate incident in the same region, rebels raided a Khalwa, an institution where pupils learn to recite the Koran holy book, and abducted 10 children, according to the government-affiliated Sudanese Media Center.

Meanwhile, rebels ambushed policemen traveling between the Zamzam and Ndjamena camps for internally displaced persons outside Al-Feshir, police said. Four policemen were wounded in the ensuing gunfight.