West Sudan rebels say govt breaches truce, 30 dead

KHARTOUM, Nov. 22 (Reuters) – Rebels in western Sudan accused the government on Saturday of violating a truce with air strikes and militia raids that killed 30 people, mostly civilians

The government said it knew nothing of the attacks in the arid Darfur area, where the rebels of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) emerged as a fighting force in February, saying Khartoum had marginalised the impoverished region.

”It’s been very bad. Attacks by government militias and the air raid have killed 30 people and lots of livestock,” SLM/A Secretary-General Minni Arcua Minnawi told Reuters by phone from western Sudan.

Minnawi said 24 of the dead were civilians and the rest rebel fighters. He said the attacks had started on Thursday and continued into Saturday in the west of Northern Darfur state, about 850 km (530 miles) west of the capital, Khartoum.

”They used an Antonov airplane to bomb civilians areas today (Saturday),” he said.

In Khartoum, Internal Affairs Minister Major General Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein said he had not heard of any attacks in the area.

The two sides signed a truce in September and agreed to extend it in November. The rebels have in the past accused the government and what it calls pro-government militias of violating the ceasefire.

Khartoum is in separate talks with another, southern-based, rebel group to end a 20-year-old civil war in the south of Africa’s largest country.