FACTBOX – Facts about eastern Sudan rebels

ASMARA, June 24 (Reuters) – Lesser-known than fellow insurgents in the western Darfur region, rebels in east Sudan said on Friday they had been bombed by government warplanes.

A Beja man rides his camel in the rebel-controlled area of Eastern Sudan, near the border with Eritrea in this picture taken June 4, 2005. (Reuters).

Following are some facts about the eastern rebels:

– The movement is called the Eastern Front, a name taken in February from the amalgamation of two rebel groups called the Beja Congress and the Rashaida Free Lions.

– Like the rebels in Darfur and former insurgents in south Sudan, the Eastern Front also says it is fighting against neglect and discrimination against the outlying regions from central government in Khartoum.

– The eastern rebels have held a small piece of territory adjacent to neighbouring Eritrea — estimated at some 15,000 sq km — since 1997.

– Until recently, there had been a lull in large-scale military activities for about three years. But the Eastern Front says it has stepped up activities of late, including capturing 20 government troops from an attack on three bases.

– The rebels are from the Beja ethnic group. Some 2.4 million Beja — a traditionally nomadic group — live in Sudan, with another 400,000 in neighbouring Egypt and Eritrea, according to aid groups who work there.

– Eastern Sudan is an arid, inhospitable landscape. But it contains the nation’s only port and is thus vital to Sudan’s growing oil industry.

– Sudan’s government recently tried to appease the Beja by offering some $88 million over three years for development and infrastructure near Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast.

– Foreign analysts have said eastern Sudan could become the next battleground in Africa’s largest country, where the Darfur conflict has brought international condemnation and a 21-year-old war in the south only ended a few months’ ago.

– One of the Darfur rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), says it has sent members to fight alongside the Eastern Front, despite a ceasefire agreement with Khartoum.

– Khartoum accuses Eritrea of giving military backing to the eastern rebels. The Eritrean government denies that, but acknowledges giving them moral and political support.

– Aid workers describe conditions in rebel-held eastern Sudan as “medieval”, with malnutrition rife.