Janjaweed militia attack the capital of North Darfur
Dec 4, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Pro-government Sudanese militias are attacking the key Darfur town of Al-Fasher, a former rebel leader allied with Khartoum said, threatening to quit the government if the assault was not halted.
“Even as I am talking to you, we are facing a Janjaweed attack on El-Fasher’s cattle market,” Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) chief Minni Minawi told a press conference in Khartoum.
“The situation is critical,” said Minawi, who signed a peace agreement in May with President Omar al-Bashir’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and was subsequently appointed as his adviser.
Two other rebel factions rejected the deal however while pro-government forces and their allied Janjaweed militia continued their attacks in Darfur, a vast western region devastated by almost four years of conflict and famine.
Minawi hinted he would quit the government coalition and pull his movement out of the peace agreement if the alleged offensive on Al-Fasher, capital of North Darfur state, was not halted.
“The ball is in the NCP’s court,” said Minawi. The SLM “has suffered for six months from deliberate violations of the ceasefire and the time has now come to put an end to this.”
An angry Minawi, talking to reporters at his Khartoum residence and circled by armed SLM members, said no casualty toll was available yet but added that the Janjaweed “were looting shops and committing exactions”.
He claimed the fact that the militia were well-armed and using good vehicles was proof the Janjaweed raid was supported by Bashir’s NCP. “Who is financing and supplying the Janjaweed? Certainly not us,” he said.
The young former rebel leader claimed “only three percent of the peace agreement has been implemented so far” and that Janjaweed militia have rased no less than 48 Darfur villages since the peace deal was signed in Abuja.
The Janjaweed militia have frequently attacked villagers and rebels over the course of the bloody conflict but have rarely ventured deep inside the region’s main cities.
Al-Fasher is the largest city in Darfur, the closest to Khartoum and also houses tens of thousands of internally displaced Darfuris living on UN humanitarian assistance.
It is also the main base for the contingent of African Union (AU) observers who have failed to restore peace and stability since they were deployed two years ago.
According to the United Nations, at least 200,000 people have died from the combined effects of war and famine since the fighting erupted in February 2003. Some sources put the toll much higher.
Led by the United States, Western countries this year pushed for the under-funded and ill-equipped AU contingent to be replaced by a more robust force of some 20,000 UN peacekeepers.
But Bashir has consistently rejected such an option as well as compromise proposals for a “hybrid force”, accusing Washington of seeking to invade his country and plunder its resources.
The diplomatic tug of war over the deployment of peacekeepers has also revealed rifts in the unity cabinet set up by Khartoum and southern rebels after they signed a peace agreement in January 2005.
(Reuters)