West Sudan militia pursues refugees into Chad -rebels

KHARTOUM, April 29 (Reuters) – Arab militias from Sudan’s western Darfur region crossed about 10 km (six miles) into Chad and attacked Sudanese refugees and local villages, killing four people, a rebel spokesman said on Thursday.

The spokesman from one of two main rebel groups fighting the Sudanese government in Darfur told Reuters by telephone from Darfur that the attack happened on Wednesday.

“Militia forces crossed over the border to Beir Ruswan (10 km into Chad). They attacked a Sudanese refugee encampment and the host communities (Chadian villages) and they looted cattle,” said the Sudanese Liberation Army’s (SLA) Mohammed Mursal.

A Chadian military source said: “There was a confrontation between the Sudanese militias and Chadian forces in the east.” That took place on Tuesday, he added. Chadian officials had no formal comment on the report.

Mursal said four villagers were killed in an exchange of fire with the militiamen, also known as janjaweed.

Both groups, the SLA and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), signed a truce signed on April 8 to allow urgent aid to about one million people affected by the conflict.

U.N. officials have said the situation in Darfur is one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with more than 110,000 refugees encamped in neighbouring Chad.

Mursal said the attacks were in violation of the ceasefire but that the SLA was still committed to the agreement.

“But the violations are occurring too frequently and we are becoming impatient with the time it is taking for the ceasefire commission to be established on the ground,” he said.