Sudan says captures western town from rebels-radio

KHARTOUM, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Sudan’s army has captured a town from rebels in the western region of Darfur and seven other rebel camps in the area, state radio Omdurman reported on Friday.

The radio quoted an army statement issued on Thursday as saying government forces had driven rebels out of the town of Tine, which straddles Sudan’s unmarked border with Chad. Sudanese troops were not in the Sudanese district of Tine when international journalists visited earlier this week.

The statement said the victory over the rebels was a present to the Sudanese people for Eid al-Adha, which begins on Sudan.

“The gift that the armed forces, backed up by elements of the popular police and popular defence forces, gave to the Sudanese people on the blessed feast of sacrifice was their entry into the town of Tine, the expulsion of the enemy and the complete securing of the town,” the statement said.

Reuters journalists on Monday saw a Sudanese government warplane bomb a house in the Sudanese part of the town, which was mainly deserted apart from a couple of rebels.

The army statement also said government forces had “recaptured and secured” seven rebel camps in Darfur, including Abu Gamra and Kornoi, both in northern Darfur state. The army said Kornoi was the biggest rebel base.

It did not say when Tine and the bases had been captured. The rebels in the region began their uprising last February partly because of what they call government marginalisation of the arid area. The government denies the charge.

Aid workers and local residents said a Sudanese warplane attacking the rebels had bombed the Chadian side of the border on Thursday, killing two people and injuring 15 others.

Peace talks between the government and the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, one of two rebel groups operating in western Sudan, broke down in December.

Since then fighting has escalated, forcing thousands of refugees into neighbouring Chad. Rebels say Sudanese warplanes have been bombing 15 to 25 villages a day.

Khartoum and rebels in the south — the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) — have made major progress towards ending a two-decade-long civil war in talks in Kenya.