Sudanese forces kill Darfur rebel leader Karbino

June 28, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – North Darfur governor Osman Youssef Kibir announced Saturday the death of the leader of Sudan Liberation Movement for Justice (SLMJ), Ali Karbino Ali Karbino, following clashes with the government forces in the state.

Kibir said Karbino was killed with 12 other rebels on Friday, after he launched an attack on Alquba area north of Kutum. He stressed the Sudanese army repulsed the attack and seized 31 armed vehicles.

The governor pointed, in a statement released on Saturday that several SLMJ fighters were held captive.

A Sudan Tribune reporter in El-Fasher obtained pictures showing Karbino’s body since the midday but the state governor and the Sudanese army confirmed the death only in the evening.

Sources say Arab pastoralists from the area and elements of the Border Guards militia affiliated to the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) attacked the SLMJ fighters on Friday following the alleged looting of camels belonging to the herders.

10 nomads were killed and several others wounded.

In statements to Ashorooq TV, the commander of the Sudanese army force in Alquba, colonel Alnour Ahmed Adam, confirmed the death of Karbino and showed 30 vehicles and weapons captured from the rebels.

Adam also said they captured 15 rebels, adding that his force was monitoring the movements of the rebels and managed to attack them Friday in Alquba.

Karbino joined Minni Minnawi following the historical split of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) in November 2005. However following the signing of May 2006 Darfur peace agreement, he joined a rebel coalition led by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

In 2011, the late rebel commander, joint the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) of Tijani al-Sissi. However he defected following the signing of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) in July 2011.

Last March and April, his group carried out joint military attacks with SLM-Minni Minnawi in South and North Darfur.

SAF spokesperson, al-Sawarmi Khaled Saad, on Thursday announced that SAF clashed with a group from the SLM-MM in Ed al-Zalat and al-Managim areas north east of Kutum in North Darfur state.

He said they inflicted heavy casualties in lives and equipment on the rebels and seized 22 armed vehicles, 2 rocket launchers, and 3 cannons besides small arms.

Clashes between Minnawi fighters and Sudanese army and government militia in March and April 2014 displaced over 81,000 people in South and North Darfur, according to the UN agencies.

(ST)