Policeman reported killed in clash in eastern Sudan
KHARTOUM, Oct 15 (AFP) — A policeman was killed during a clash between police and opposition forces in eastern Sudan before the group fled across the border into Eritrea, a senior Kassala official said in remarks published Wednesday.
Deputy Kassala State Governor Babikir Dignah was quoted by the Akhbar Al Youm daily as saying Tuesday that the clash between “a gang of the Beja forces” and police happened north of Kassala city on the main Khartoum-Kassala highway.
The policeman was “martyred before the gang was defeated and chased by a joint army-police force until they fled into the Eritrean border territory,” Dignah was quoted as telling the independent newspaper.
The attackers were using two vehicles, Dignah said, without saying what weapons they were carrying.
In a separate development, the deputy governor said 14 pieces of explosives were found near an electric power transformer outside Kassala city and a man was noticed to have been standing nearby “preparing to detonate the explosives”.
The man fled and authorities mounted a search for him, he added.
The Beja Congress comprises east Sudan’s non-Arab Beja tribes who reportedly complain they are being marginalised and that their region is left to poverty and neglect.
Meanwhile, authorities charged that Eritrea was sponsoring an effort to unify the Beja forces with another eastern Sudanese opposition faction calling itself “the Free Lions,” made up of the Arab Rashaydah nomadic tribes.
The Sudan Media Centre (SMC) said Mohamed Sherif, identified as a Beja Congress leader, arrived in Asmara from London for talks with the Eritrean military leadership and the Free Lions as well as the armed wing of the Beja Congress about forming a joint leadership of the two factions.
The SMC, in a report published by the official Al-Anbaa daily, quoted an unnamed Eritrean government source as saying the meeting would discuss political coordination between Asmara and the two Eritrea-based factions.
The source, however, stressed that the Eritrean government harbours no hostility towards Sudan, saying the presence of Eritrean military representatives at the meeting was in response to a request by the visiting Beja Congress delegation.