Sudan, Darfur rebels agree on ceasefire observers
(Updates with witnesses’ report of aerial attack in west Sudan)
By Tsegaye Tadesse
ADDIS ABABA, May 28 (Reuters) – Sudan’s government and the two main rebel groups fighting in Darfur agreed on Friday to allow international observers to monitor a ceasefire, as reports emerged of a fresh aerial attack in west Sudan.
Witnesses told Reuters that at least 11 people were killed when an Antonov plane and helicopters bombed the village of Tabit, about 40 km (25 miles) southwest of al-Fashir, the capital of Northern Darfur state, on market day.
An al-Fashir airport official dismissed reports of the attack, which would violate the ceasefire deal reached between the government and two main western rebel groups in April. Rebels have regularly accused Khartoum of violations.
Fighting has raged in Darfur for more than a year, adding to Sudan’s woes as it tries to end a 21-year-old civil war between government forces and southern rebels who signed a landmark agreement in Kenya this week as a prelude to a wider peace deal.
Friday’s deal in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa provides for an international Darfur ceasefire commission including representatives from the African Union, European Union, Khartoum government and the two main Darfur rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM/A).
The African Union (AU) Commissioner for Peace and Security, Said Djinnit, said the first seven military observers would go to Darfur next week.
The AU’s Peace and Security Council said at its launch on Tuesday in Addis Ababa that it would soon send an observer mission composed of 60 military officials and about 30 civilians to five flashpoints in Darfur to monitor ceasefire violations.
“I would like to assure the AU and the international partners that the government of Sudan is committed to the agreement just signed,” said Sudan’s Ambassador to Ethiopia, Osman Elsaid, who signed the agreement for his government.
BOMBARDING THE MARKET
But government officials in Sudan were not immediately available to comment on reports of the aerial attack, which witnesses said occurred at about 2 p.m. local time (1100 GMT), hours before the observer agreement was announced.
“There were two helicopters and one Antonov and they started bombarding the market,” one witness, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters by telephone.
“Everybody fled while it was happening… We still haven’t buried our dead. I can see 12 bodies, but not everyone is back yet so we are not sure how many (dead) there are,” he added.
SLM/A spokesman Mohammed Mursal told Reuters by telephone from Darfur that Friday’s attack on Tabit had killed as many as 20 people, based on witnesses to whom he spoke.
Independent verification is hard to obtain in the remote Darfur region. Rights groups have previously accused the government of using Antonov planes in bombing raids.
An official at Al-Fashir airport, who asked not to be named, said no planes had taken off from the airfield. But analysts said other airports in the region could have been used.
“There has been no aerial bombardment. These people are lying. We are going to hear a lot of these kinds of lies in the future,” the airport official said by telephone.
The war in Darfur has killed an estimated 30,000 people and forced more than a million more to flee since fighting broke out in February last year. The United Nations has called it the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
(Additional reporting by Nima Elbagir in Khartoum)