Militias kill 2 civilians in Darfur town-AU
Dec 9, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Gunmen killed two civilians in the main town in Darfur on Saturday, the African Union (AU) said, and former rebels identified the assailants as members of a militia the Sudanese government is accused of backing.
The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), the only group that signed a May peace deal with the government, said scores of vehicles carrying militias locally known as the Janjaweed had stormed Al Fasher, the capital of northern Darfur.
“Armed elements killed two civilians in the market. The AU is in contact with El Fasher authorities and is investigating the incident,” Noureddine Mezni, the AU’s spokesman in Sudan, said.
“It is a very regrettable incident specially given that the town was beginning to stabilise,” he told Reuters.
Al Fasher was a scene of deadly clashes earlier this week between the Janjaweed and the armed wing of the SLM, headed by Minni Arcua Minnawi, who became a presidential adviser after signing the peace deal.
Rights groups say Khartoum has armed the Janjaweed to use them as a proxy militia in Darfur, where experts say around 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since the conflict flared in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government, charging it with neglect.
The government denies supporting the Janjaweed.
One witness in El Fasher told Reuters earlier that the Janjaweed had killed a tailor in the market.
“They had a dispute with a tailor … and then shot him dead,” he said. “People started screaming ‘God is great’ and took the body to the hospital, but the Janjaweed opened fire in the air and dispersed them.”
SLM spokesman Saif Haroun identified the tailor as Adam Ibrahim and said eight other people were wounded in the shooting. The figure could not be independently verified.
“A government force came to the market and there was a standoff with the militia and the government force withdrew,” he said. The SLM has accused Khartoum of rearming the Janjaweed, a charge the government denies.
Haroun said the gunmen appeared to be coming from the direction of Sudan’s border with Chad.
Chad and Sudan have accused each other of supporting rebel groups in both countries.
(Reuters)