Fresh clashes between Sudanese army and rebels in Darfur
September 28, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – Two rebel groups said they ambushed Thursday a Sudanese military supply convoy in North Darfur, but a regional official said they attacked was against a commercial convoy.
Adam Saleh Abakr, SLM-MM spokesperson, said they had intelligence that the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) intend to move military supplies to its troops in South Darfur where the rebels intensified their attacks recently against the government troops.
The rebels said they captured 15 four-wheel drive vehicles loaded with military equipment, and four fuel trucks in good conditions. They further said they destroyed 10 vehicles and 10 fuel trucks.
JEM military spokesperson, Badawi Moussa Al-Sakin, spoke further about the capture of some prisoners of war, but he did not give a number or details about the rank of the detained POWs
Hold-out rebel groups recently have intensified attacks in North and South Darfur after one year of relative calm in the region following the signing of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur between the government and the Liberation and Justice Movement in July 2011.
The two rebel groups who carried out the attack are member of a rebel alliance including the SLM of Abdel Wahid Al-Nur (SLM_AW) and the SPLM-North which fights the Khartoum government in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
South Darfur deputy governor, Abdel Karim Moussa, confirmed the attack. But he said it was a commercial convoy coming from Omdurman not North Darfur as the rebels claimed. The assault took place in Tabet near Sangil Tobay in North Darfur, he added.
He said the Sudanese army inflicted heavy losses on the assailant rebels and successfully rescued 300 trucks loaded with goods and 180 fuel trucks.
He went further to say the army escorted the commercial convoy to Shangil Tobay and other forces are dispatched to escort it to Nyala, capital of South Darfur.
(ST)