Rebels accuse Sudanese military of massacre of civilians in Darfur

CAIRO, Dec 3 (AFP) — A rebel group Friday accused the Sudanese military and allied militias of carrying out a massacre of dozens of civilians in the strife-torn Darfur region of western Sudan this week.

Sudan Liberation Army rebels gather for a meeting with AU ceasefire monitors at Gellab, a village in the desert east of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state on November 8, 2004. (Reuters).

A Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) spokesman told AFP that government forces had killed up to 100 civilians around Adoua, 45 kilometers (30 miles) north of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, between November 29 and December 2.

“They are now trying to conceal the truth about this brutal crime,” Mohammed Hamid Ali said by telephone from Darfur, adding the government was using military trucks to remove bodies from the site to undisclosed locations.

The fighting broke out when government forces, backed by armored carriers and an Antonov aircraft attacked SLA-controlled Adoua, forcing out the 30 SLA fighters defending the town, according to Ali.

“Nearly 600 Arab Janjaweed militias were also involved in the assault,” the spokesman added. “Some of our fighters died in the battle and others withdrew from the town.”

He said that civilians caught up in the fighting were unable to flee and many of them were killed by the Janjaweed, the government proxy militias blamed for many atrocities in the region.

There was no independent confirmation of the charges and no immediate comment from the Khartoum government.

Ali said the SLA had notified the United Nations and the African Union (AU) observer mission in the area about what he called the latest breach of an April 8 ceasefire agreement with the government.

Local authorities refused to allow an AU helicopter to land in the town to investigate, as the military had yet to wipe out the evidence, according to the SLA spokesman.

The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003, when rebels rose up to demand an end to the marginalisation of their region by Khartoum as well as a bigger share of Sudan’s mineral and oil resources.

The United Nations has described the conflict as the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian crisis.

More than 70,000 people have been killed or have died from hunger and disease in the Darfur region, according to the United Nations, and another 1.6 million have been displaced by the conflict.