Western Sudan rebels accuse government of pre-ceasefire attacks
KHARTOUM, April 12 (Reuters) – A rebel commander in Sudan’s western Darfur region on Monday accused the government of breaking the spirit of a ceasefire by attacking two villages shortly before hostilities were officially scheduled to stop.
Both the rebels and the Khartoum-based government said the ceasefire was holding. The government denied rebel accusations it had hit two villages just ahead of the ceasefire’s Sunday start and said there has been no fighting for 10 days.
Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) field commander Ahmed Adam said the attacks on the villages showed a lack of good faith and “proved that the government isn’t serious.”
Khartoum and the rebels signed a 45-day ceasefire deal on Thursday and agreed on access for relief groups into the arid region where the United Nations has repeatedly warned of a possible humanitarian disaster.
The United Nations says the fighting, which started in February 2003, has affected more than one million people and forced more than 100,000 refugees over the border into Chad.
A second Darfur rebel group said there had been no fighting in Darfur since the ceasefire came into force.
“The fighting has stopped entirely,” Abu Bakr Hamid al-Nur of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) told Reuters.
The rebels say Khartoum first neglected Darfur and then armed marauding Arab militia who loot and burn African villages. Khartoum has branded the Arab militia or “Janjaweed” outlaws.
“If there are any breaches from the Janjaweed, that means a breach by the government because they are militias armed and supported by the government,” Nur said.
Khartoum and the rebels would meet in Chad in about two weeks to discuss the agenda for further talks for a political solution to the Darfur problem, he said.
Khartoum has been engaged in separate peace talks in Kenya to end 21 years of fighting with other rebels in the south of the country. Those talks have hit a snag over the implementation of Islamic Sharia law in Khartoum.