Sudanese army denies attacks on Darfur civilians
Oct 3, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese army on Monday strongly denied involvement in a series of attacks on villages and camps for displaced persons in the war-torn Darfur region that left about 44 people dead.
The army also blasted Baba Gana Kingibe, chief of the African Union Mission in Sudan after he implicated government forces in the deadly raids that also displaced hundreds of people and drew international condemnation.
“The information that Baba Gana Kingibe, the special representative of the chairman of the AU commission, provided was absolutely incorrect,” the army said in a statement.
The flare-up in violence comes amid stalled AU-sponsored peace negotiations between Khartoum and Darfur rebel factions trying to end a conflict that erupted in February 2003.
Laurens Jolles, head of mission for the UN refugee agency in Darfur, said 34 men had been killed in raids carried out by 250 to 300 Arabs against the Aro Sharow camp for displaced people in West Darfur last Wednesday.
But he said a team who went to the site of the attack found no evidence of direct government involvement.
Kingibe had accused the government and its notorious proxy Janjaweed Arab militias of carrying out “coordinated offensive operations” in Darfur and using aircraft in the operations.
“We do not have aircrafts in West Darfur. Our aircrafts are in Al-Fasher (North Darfur) and Nyala (South Darfur) and they are being monitored by the AU,” the army said.
It admitted that government forces clashed with rebels near Tawila camp for displaced persons in North Darfur after the rebels commandeered a truck delivering water to police guarding the camp.
But the statement denied the army was responsible for the displacement of hundreds of people in the area.
The army also claimed Kingibe relied on aid agencies for his information and accused him of being “partial and incompetent to carry out the mission.”
Two million people are estimated to have been driven from their homes by fighting since rebels, who accuse Khartoum of discrimination and neglect, rose up in February 2003.
The conflict is believed to have killed up to 300,000 people.
The African Union is to hold an emergency meeting in Addis Ababa on Wednesday to consider measures on how to avoid further deterioration of the security situation.
The meeting was initially scheduled for Monday but AU spokesman in Sudan Nureddin Mezni said it had been postponed.
(AFP/ST)