Khartoum fails to disarm militias, violates ceasefire: rebels
LIBREVILLE, April 27 (AFP) — Sudanese rebels who have been fighting the central Sudanese government in the Darfur region on Tuesday accused Khartoum of violating a ceasefire agreement and failing to disarm allied militias.
“Rather than disarm the (local Arab) Djandjawids militias (who are fighting alongside Sudanese troops in Darfur), Khartoum is setting them up in four places to integrate them into the army,” the military spokesman for the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Colonel Abdallah Abdel-Karim told AFP by telephone.
“This is a violation of the Ndjamena accord,” he added.
He named the places as Kapkabia and Sierp-den-Hussein, both west of Al-Fasher, the main town of North Darfur, Kouma, northwest of Al-Fasher, and Rihete south of Nyala, South Darfur’s main town.
Sudanese government troops and the militias again violated the ceasefire accord Monday when they attacked the villages of Kocholongue, south of Nyala, killing two civilians and wounding four others, and Billel-Gas to the east, where two students working for an aid group were hurt, Abdel-Karim said.
Looting took place in the two villages, he added.
Abdel-Karim called on the international community to rapidly form a committee to monitor the ceasefire as planned under the April 8 accord which was signed after over a year of bloody fighting.
“We warn the Sudanese government about the repeated violations of the ceasfire. If the ceasefire fails, the Sudanese government will bear the responsibility for it. We will not stand by doing nothing,” he said.
Under the terms of the deal signed in the Chadian capital, the parties agreed to cease hostilities within 72 hours — by April 11 — for a renewable period of 45 days.
They also agreed to guarantee safe passage for humanitarian aid to the stricken region, to free prisoners of war and to disarm militias who have been blamed for much of the violence.
The agreement was signed by the Sudanese government and the two rebel groups — the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement.
Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir said earlier Tuesday at a rally in Al-Fasher during his first visit to Darfur for more than a year that the region of western Sudan had abandoned war and ushered in peace.
The United Nations has called the Darfur conflict the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis and rights groups have said atrocities are still being committed by the government-backed militias despite the ceasefire deal.
The war is estimated by the United Nations to have claimed at least 10,000 lives, uprooted a million people from their homes to other parts of Sudan, and driven more than 100,000 to seek shelter across the Chadian border.