Ten killed in Sudanese air raid on Darfur town: rebel group

CAIRO, Oct 23 (AFP) — Ten people were killed on Saturday when the Sudanese air force attacked a town in the south of the strife-torn Darfur region, a spokesman for the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) said.

Members of Sudanese Liberation Army ride on a truck at Ashma village 30 km (19 miles) from Nyala, south Darfur, October 6, 2004.

The spokesman, Mahjub Hussein, described the alleged action by Khartoum as a “true declaration of war against the SLM” and said the group also considered it a violation of the ceasefire agreed by the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels in April.

“The Sudanese air force bombed on Saturday at around midday the town of Aid in the south of Darfur, resulting in the deaths of 10 people,” the spokesman said, adding that the group had asked African forces posted in the region to open an inquiry.

“The SLM warns the Sudanese government and the authorities of the consequences that could result from a continued violation of the ceasefire agreement,” he told AFP from the Nigerian capital Abuja.

“We consider this to be a true declaration of war against the SLM, which could lead to the suspension of negotiations if the government does not respect the accords that were concluded.”

The second round of negotiations between Khartoum and Darfur rebels are set to resume formally in Abuja on Monday, a month after the collapse of a first set of talks.

Hussein said that an SLM delegation would meet the UN secretary general’s special representative on Sudan Jan Pronk Saturday evening before embarking on talks with Khartoum on Monday.

The SLM and another rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), have been waging a 20-month-old conflict in the western Darfur region with the authorities in Khartoum.

More than 70,000 people — the vast majority of them civilians — have been killed in the fighting and more than 1.5 million people driven from their homes and into squalid and dangerous refugee camps, according to UN estimates.