Rebels said to have withdrawn from South Darfur town

Sept 21, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — Rebels are reported to have withdrawn from a South Darfur town, which the Sudanese army was threatening to recapture, a U.N. spokesman said Wednesday.

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

The Sudan Liberation Army overran the town of Sheiria on Monday, violating the ceasefire in the western region of Sudan. The move provoked government protests and U.N. expressions of concern for the town’s 33,000 inhabitants, who depend on international aid.

“We have heard from some sources that the SLA left the town (Tuesday),” U.N. spokesman George Somerwill told The Associated Press.

Somerwill declined to reveal the sources, but stressed that the African Union mission was responsible for the peace process in Darfur.

A.U. spokesman Noureddine Mezni refused to comment on whether the rebels had withdrawn from Sheiria, saying only that a statement would be issued later Wednesday.

Mezni said the A.U. had observers in Sheiria. A.U. soldiers have been monitoring the ceasefire in Darfur, which has been devastated by a rebellion and counterinsurgency that began in early 2003.

The Sudanese military had warned it wouldn’t tolerate the rebel capture of the town.

“We will not stand cross-armed, and the army will respond with violence and promptness to anyone who thinks of undermining the gains and capabilities of the people,” the military said in a statement issued Tuesday in Khartoum.

The Foreign Ministry summoned the deputy chief U.N. envoy to Sudan, Taye-Brook Zerihoun, on Tuesday and demanded the world “shoulder its responsibility to avert an escalation of the situation,” the official Sudan News Agency reported.

A message about the capture of Sheiria was passed to the SLA team in Abuja, Nigeria, where the rebels are taking part in A.U.-brokered peace talks with the government, said an official in Khartoum, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The rebels’ capture of Sheiria caused three non-government organizations to leave the town, Somerwill said.

“The humanitarian implications of more fighting around Sheiria are extremely serious because 33,000 people are being looked after by the international humanitarian community,” Somerwill said. “It is important that that assistance in not interrupted.”

The SLA has a record of capturing towns and soon withdrawing, apparently to make the point that it is a force to be reckoned with.

The Darfur conflict broke out when ethnic African tribesmen took up arms against the Khartoum government, accusing it of long neglect and discrimination. The government is alleged to have mobilized Arab militias against the rebels. U.N. investigators accused the militia, known as Janjaweed, of unleashing a campaign of murder, rape and arson against the ethnic African population.

At least 180,000 people have died from hunger and disease in the conflict and about 2 million were displaced. There are no firm estimates for the number killed in the fighting.

(AP/ST)