Darfur rebels say militias attack villages
Oct 22, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Armed militia have looted and attacked civilians and raped two girls in villages in the Nena area of North Darfur, rebels said on Sunday.
Despite a May peace deal violence has escalated in Sudan’s remote west where experts say 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million forced from their homes.
“The Janjaweed attacked villages in Nena yesterday and raped two girls … aged 16 and 18,” said Jar el-Naby, a rebel commander in North Darfur.
“Government troops are also mobilising in this area, and we are prepared for an attack,” Naby said.
Nena is about 100 kilometres northwest of el-Fasher, Darfur’s main town. Janjaweed, derived loosely from the Arabic for devils on horseback, are militias accused of a campaign of rape, pillage and murder which Washington calls genocide.
Khartoum denies genocide and any links to Janjaweed, calling them bandits.
One African Union source confirmed the heavy build-up of troops around the area in North Darfur, which has seen fighting between the rebels and government over the past few months.
Only one of three rebel negotiating factions signed the AU-sponsored May deal. Tens of thousands of Darfuris reject the agreement saying they want more political representation and better compensation for war victims.
Since the accord many non-signatory rebels formed a new alliance called the National Redemption Front (NRF), which renewed hostilities with the government in the Kordofan region neighbouring Darfur in June.
Rights group Amnesty International said in a press release that thousands of civilians in neighbouring eastern Chad had fled cross-border Janjaweed attacks.
“The new wave of attacks across the Chad/Sudan border started on 3 October and have continued since then,” Amnesty said in a press release on Saturday. “Dozens of people have been killed and some 3,000 have fled in the past week.”
It called on the Chadian government to deploy more troops along the long and porous border until U.N. peacekeepers deployed in Darfur.
Khartoum rejects a U.N. Security Council resolution to send 22,500 U.N. troops and police to take over from a cash-strapped struggling African Union force in Darfur.
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir likens it to a Western invasion aimed at recolonising Sudan. Critics say he fears U.N. troops would arrest government officials likely to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigating alleged war crimes in the region.
Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 in Darfur, accusing central government of neglect.
(Reuters)