Sudan accused of Darfur truce breach as militia attacks Chad town

By Ali Abba Kaya

NDJAMENA, April 29 (AFP) — Khartoum is still backing Arab Janjawid militias in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, a Chadian official accused, saying the Janjawid have attacked a town inside Chad, killing one civilian and wounding many others.

“The Janjawid attacked the civilian population in Kulbus-Chad,” said Allami Ahmat, diplomatic adviser to Chadian President Idriss Deby and a member of the Chadian mediation team that is trying to broker an end to the Darfur war, which pits rebels in Sudan’s far west against the Khartoum government and allied militias.

“This situation is all the more unacceptable because the Sudanese army tolerates and offers land and air backup to the Janjawid militias,” said Ahmat.

The pro-Khartoum militiamen also tried to steal the Chadian villagers’ cattle and herd it back across the border into Sudan, said Ahmat.

The villagers pursued the Janjawid into Sudan but were pushed back to the border by the Sudanese army, he said.

There, the Sudanese soldiers had a verbal spat with their Chadian counterparts, said Ahmat.

“We can confirm that the Janjawid militia is still very active and has not been disarmed,” said Ahmat, backing accusations by Darfur rebels that Khartoum had breached an accord signed on April 8 in the Chadian capital.

On Tuesday, the military spokesman for the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) told AFP: “Rather than disarm the Janjawid militias, Khartoum is setting them up in four places to integrate them into the army… This is a violation of the Ndjamena accord.”

Under the terms of the deal signed in the Chadian capital, the parties agreed to cease hostilities, guarantee safe passage for humanitarian aid to the stricken region, free prisoners of war and disarm militias blamed for much of the violence.

The agreement, the third to call for a ceasefire following two short-lived truces, was signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups — the JEM and the Sudan Liberation Movement.

The war in Darfur is estimated by the United Nations to have claimed at least 10,000 lives, uprooted a million people from their homes, and driven more than 100,000 to seek shelter across the Chadian border.

The United Nations has accused the Janjawid of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, where rebels rose up in February 2003, accusing the Arab-Muslim government in Khartoum of backing ruthless militias and neglecting their region, peopled mainly by black Africans.

Last week, the top UN human rights forum meeting in Geneva split over the Darfur situation, adopting a softly worded text on the alleged atrocities despite the United States demanding tough action.

Khartoum welcomed the mildly worded UN text, calling it “a victory for law.”

Sudanese President Omar el-Beshir said during a visit to Darfur on Tuesday that the war in the region was over.

And when the pact was signed on April 8, Beshir said his government was “committed to respecting the Ndjamena agreements.”

The conflict in Darfur is running parallel to Sudan’s wider war, in which southern rebels have been fighting Khartoum’s forces for more than 20 years, at a cost of some 1.5 million lives.

After making great progress towards peace, talks to end that war, Africa’s longest civil conflict, have stalled, hung up on the technicality, agreed to in earlier parleys, of whether Islamic law should apply to Muslims and non-Muslims alike in Khartoum during a six-year transition period before a referendum on self-determination is held for the south.