West Sudan rebels say kill over 700 govt forces
CAIRO, Dec 7 (Reuters) – A western Sudanese rebel group said on Sunday they had killed around 700 government troops and pro-government militiamen pushing into rebel areas in the arid Darfur region in an ambush, forcing them to retreat.
Government officials were not immediately available to comment on the attack, which rebels said took place on Friday at the Abu Gamra dam, 45 kilometres (28 miles) north of government-held Kebkabiya in Northern Darfur state. Officials have previously said there were military operations in the area.
Independent verification is difficult to obtain in the remote west, where the United Nations estimates 500,000 people have been displaced by fighting this year. “The government were on a major offensive going to Tina but we cut them off at the dam,” Khalil Ibrahim, chairman of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), told Reuters from Paris, adding the border town of Tina was in rebel control.
Another JEM leader said from the battle area in Darfur: “About 5,000-6,000 government troops and militia were in the battle… We killed about 700 of them.”
Ibrahim said 17 of about 1,000 JEM fighters were killed in the ambush and they captured dozens of government tanks and vehicles after the government forces retreated some 18 miles.
JEM is one of two main rebel groups that began a revolt in February this year in the poor Darfur region. JEM says it wants a rotating presidency and autonomy for all states.
The other group, the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M), signed a ceasefire with Khartoum in September and is due to restart peace talks this month in Chad. Both sides have accused the other of violating the truce.
Rights group Amnesty International has said the situation in Darfur could rapidly degenerate into a full-scale civil war.
Separate high-level peace talks with a different southern-based rebel group are underway in Kenya, in hopes to end a two-decade-old civil war in the south that has killed two million people, mostly though famine and disease.