Twenty-four dead in government strike on Darfur village: rebels
LIBREVILLE, June 1 (AFP) — Twenty-four people have been killed in a two-day assault by government forces on a village in Sudan’s war-ravaged western Darfur region, the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (MJE) said on Tuesday.
Khartoum’s forces launched an air strike on the village of Adjidji, south of Geneina in West Darfur, in breach of a ceasefire agreement, MJE spokesman Colonel Abdallah Abdel Kerim told AFP by satellite telephone.
“The Janjawid (pro-government Arab militias) and the army then attacked the village and killed 24 people,” all civilians,” he said. The attack reportedly took place on Monday and Tuesday.
Fighting between government forces and two rebel groups in Darfur has left some 10,000 people dead since February 2003 and sparked what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
About one million people are thought to have fled the impoverished region following attacks by Sudanese troops and Janjawid militias on black African civilians, with up to 100,000 people taking refuge in neighbouring Chad.
The government and the rebels on Friday signed an accord that should allow international observers to be deployed in the region this week to monitor an April 8 ceasefire.
Both sides regularly accuse each other of violating the truce.