Sudanese police shootout with Minawi troops kills 10

March 24, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Two policemen and eight members of Darfur’s former rebel Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) were killed on Saturday in a shootout near the capital, officials and ex-rebels said.

Interior Minister Zubeir Beshir Taha said in a televised press conference that police had reported losing two men in the battle, including a lieutenant colonel, while the SLM said it had eight dead and seven wounded.

According to the minister the clashes began when a civilian opened fire on a group of SLM members in a residential neighbourhood of Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman. Taha said the situation was now under control.

But SLM spokesman Tayeb Khamis told AFP that police had sparked the shootout while trying to get the former rebels to hand over two of their number regarding “a traffic problem” earlier in the week.

“SLM members tried to convince the police that the problem could be resolved peacefully but, instead, the commander of the police group gave orders to open fire and raid the residence,” Khamis said.

He said police killed four men inside the house and four others in a car. He said the ex-rebels then returned fire, killing two police.

Khartoum police chief Major General Mohammed al-Tayeb declined to elaborate on the clash, saying only that two policemen and eight SLM men were killed in the clashes and another nine policemen wounded.

He said police had arrested 41 SLM members.

The clash was the first in Khartoum between the SLM and the government as well as the worst violence to hit the city since riots sparked by the death of southern rebel leader John Garang in August 2005 killed over 45 people.

The fighting came amid what observers have described as a rising climate of tension between the SLM and local authorities.

The SLM of Minni Minnawi launched a revolt against the central government in Sudan’s western Darfur region in 2003, but three years later signed a peace accord with the government.

It is only in the wake of the agreement that the SLM has had any presence in Khartoum at all, following the opening of an office there so they could have direct contacts with the central government.

The SLM’s peace agreement with Khartoum was not well received in Darfur and the movement has suffered several schisms as factions have split off to conduct their own military campaigns against the central government.

As a result fighting has continued in the troubled region where the UN estimates 200,000 people have died and another 2.5 million have been displaced.

A joint UN-African Union delegation is currently in Khartoum to try to relaunch talks between the government and the many rebel factions who haven’t signed the peace agreement.

(AFP)