200 Darfur rebels killed in fresh attack – Sudanese army
Dec 21, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese army has said it has killed 200 rebels and lost four of its own men while repelling an attack in the war-torn western region of Darfur.
In a statement quoted by the state-run SUNA news agency Thursday, the army also said that 20 of its troops were wounded during the fighting, which took place in northern Darfur on Wednesday.
The army charged that rebels from the National Redemption Front (NRF) attempted to launched an assault on the town of Kutum.
Government troops repelled the attack 12 kilometres (8 miles) south of the town and “killed 200 rebels, including two commanders, destroyed six canons and 18 vehicles and seizing eight others,” the statement said.
If the casualty toll is confirmed, Wednesday’s fighting would be one of the deadliest single incidents reported this year in the troubled region.
The conflict erupted in February 2003 when ethnic minority rebels complaining of marginalisation launched an uprising, which was fiercely repressed by government troops and allied militias.
A peace deal was signed in May between the government and the main rebel faction from the Sudan Liberation Movement but the two others negotiating factions — including rebels who later formed the NRF — rejected the agreement, which has failed to take hold.
According to the United Nations, at least 200,000 people have died from the combined effect of war and famine since fighting erupted almost four years ago in Darfur.
Some sources say the toll is much higher while Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir — whose regime stands accused of genocide by Washington — put the figure at “barely 9,000”.
Fresh violence has erupted in Darfur recently, with African military observers increasingly in the line of fire and aid agencies warning of a deteriorating humanitarian situation.
The latest deaths come as diplomats are involved in last-ditch efforts to convince Khartoum to accept UN peacekeepers who would replace the embattled 7,000-strong African contingent struggling to contain the violence.
The United States has been spearheading efforts to deploy a robust UN force in Darfur but Beshir has consistently rejected such an option, accusing the West of seeking to invade his country and plunder its resources.
Outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan dispatched an envoy — Mauritanian under secretary Ahmadou Ould Abdallah — to Khartoum on Wednesday in a bid to clinch Beshir’s approval for a ‘hybrid’ AU-UN force.
Abdallah said Thursday after meeting Beshir that the president had promised to provide a written response to the three-phase UN proposal aimed at bolstering the AU troops.
Sudan has agreed to the first two phases of the package which offer the world body’s technical and logistical assistance but it has yet to give its green light on the more contentious third phase which provides for the deployment of UN forces.
(AFP)