W. Sudan rebels say 353 killed in fighting
CAIRO, Dec 5 (Reuters) – A western Sudanese rebel group said on Friday 353 rebels, pro-government militiamen and troops had been killed in two days of fighting over an area with water in the arid Darfur region.
Government officials were not immediately available for comment about fighting in the area around 70 km (40 miles) southeast of Tina in Northern Darfur state. Officials have previously said there were military operations in the area.
Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) Secretary-General Minni Arcua Minnawi said 250 government fighters and seven rebels were killed in fighting on Thursday. A day later, 91 on the government side and five rebels were killed, he said.
”We defeated them and kept control of an area with two dams. We killed many of their men and captured some of their military cars,” Minnawi said.
The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the second main rebel group in the area, said it had also fought government troops and militias in the area but did not have casualty figures.
Independent verification is difficult to obtain in the remote west, where the United Nations says at least 500,000 people have been displaced by fighting this year.
The SLM/A signed a ceasefire with the government in September, although both sides have accused the other of violations.
The group, which emerged as a fighting force in February, accuses Khartoum of marginalising the area. JEM says it wants autonomy for the region and a fairer share of Sudan’s resources.
Rebels said government attacks targeting villages on Sunday northeast of the town of Geneina, 150 km (93 miles) southeast of Tina, were part of a government offensive heading north to areas controlled by rebel groups.
An independent Sudanese newspaper reported on Thursday the government had announced its forces had repulsed an attack in the same area on Monday. Minnawi said there was no fighting in the area on that day.
Sudan is in separate peace talks in Kenya with a southern-based rebel group to end a two-decade-old civil war in the south of Africa’s largest country that has killed about two million people, mostly from famine or disease.