Eastern Sudan rebels accuse Khartoum of fomenting tension
Mar 14, 2006 (ASMARA) — Sudanese rebels on Tuesday accused the government of fomenting tension in the eastern part of the country, a restive belt through which an oil pipeline to the country’s largest port passes.
The Eastern Front Sudanese rebels heaped blame on the Khartoum government for rising insecurity and a recent spate of raids in Kassala that have left 15 people dead, four of them over the weekend.
“On Sunday, two grenades were lobbed into the Matsoura camp in Kassala and as a result two women and two children were killed, and twenty people were injured,” the rebels said in a statement released in Asmara, where they are based.
“The Eastern Front holds the government of Sudan fully responsible for these developments and the general insecurity,” it added. “The Eastern Front will not hesitate to take the necessary steps to protect the citizens from these organised attacks.”
The Matsoura camp in government-controlled Kassala is inhabited by more than 50,000 people, mostly from the Rashaida ethnic group, rebel official Abdalla Hamid told reporters.
Abdalla said at least 11 people had died in attacks in Kassala since February.
“There is an absence of law and order, a general insecurity … These incidents are escalating despite the government’s presence,” he lamented.
Abdalla threw cold water on the prospects of a planned Libya sponsored peace talks between Khartoum and east Sudanese rebels, which were called off last month following disagreements over Eritrea’s participation.
“How can you get peace this way?” he said.
From oil fields in the southern region, Sudan has more than 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) for export through Port Sudan, which sits in eastern Sudan. Rebel activities have barred the production of proven reserves of around 560 million barrels.
Like their better-known rebel counterparts in Darfur, the Eastern Front complains of marginalization by the government in Khartoum, which it accuses of exploiting natural resources such as oil, natural gas, gold and other minerals at the expense of the local population.
The Eastern Front was founded by eastern Sudan’s two main rebel groups, the Beja Congress and the Free Lions, early last year and claimed to have launched its first offensive against government positions in the Red Sea state last June.
An influential policy group warned in January that simmering tensions in east Sudan were a “powderkeg” that could explode into a major war, damaging peace efforts in Darfur and last year’s north-south peace deal.
The International Crisis Group called on the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, former southern rebels who are now part of a power-sharing government in Khartoum, to urge Sudan’s leadership to negotiate in good faith with the Eastern Front.
(ST/AFP)