Sudan planes carry out Darfur raids near Chad

Jan 9, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese aircraft carried out strikes on two locations in the Darfur region near the border with Chad, endangering a fragile ceasefire, an African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission has said.

It said the raids were carried out last Friday on Bamina and Gadir in North Darfur state, without specifying if they caused any casualties or damage, in the second such attack in a week.

“Continued violation of the ceasefire is a stumbling block to the ongoing efforts at seeking a durable ceasefire,” the AU’s ceasefire commission said in a statement Tuesday.

It said government forces claimed that National Salvation Front rebels which did not sign a May ceasefire accord were “amassing weapons and fighters in Bamina area … preparing to attack Tina, Kornoi, Umbaru and El Geneina”.

“Such counter-accusations and acts of ceasefire violations will obliterate all the successes achieved so far,” the AU warned, urging all parties to “refrain from any activities that will jeopardize the peace process”.

The commission reported on December 30 that military planes had bombed rebel positions in North Darfur, also threatening the peace deal between Khartoum and the main faction of the Sudan Liberation Army.

The war in Darfur erupted in February 2003 when rebels from minority tribes in the vast western province took up arms to demand an equal share of national resources, prompting a heavy-handed crackdown from government forces and their Janjaweed proxy militia.

According to the United Nations, the conflict in Darfur has killed 200,000 people and displaced more than two million others in almost four years, despite the peace agreement and the deployment of AU peacekeepers.

(AFP)