AU says rebels attacked convoy of Nigerian pilgrims, killing seven people

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Nov 4, 2004 (AP) — Rebels have attacked a convoy of Nigerian pilgrims as it drove across Darfur, killing seven people, the African Union mission said Thursday.

A Rwandan African Union soldier patrols at Abushouk camp near El Fasher in North Darfur, Nov. 3. (Reuters).

The rebels ambushed three trucks as they drove through the Khor Tawaila area on Tuesday, said Maj. Mac Dorbi, the Ghanian chief operations officer for the African Union mission in Sudan.

Dorbi said it was the fourth attack in recent weeks on Nigerian Islamic pilgrims crossing northern Sudan on their way to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Firing Kalashnikov rifles, the rebels killed four pilgrims and two Sudanese soldiers who were escorting the convoy. A fifth pilgrim, a young woman, apparently died of a heart attack, Dorbi said.

Eight pilgrims were wounded and are being treated in hospital, Dorbi said in a phone interview with The Associated Press in Cairo.

The official Sudan News Agency reported the attack, but said three people were killed and an undisclosed number of pilgrims were treated in hospital in El Fasher, the capital of north Darfur.

“We suspect the rebels were the Sudan Liberation Army,” Dorbi said.

Representatives of the SLA could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The SLA is the larger of two Darfur rebel groups that took up arms against the government in early 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting their province and discriminating against Sudanese of African origin.

When the first truck was attacked, the other two trucks managed to turn around and flee the scene, Dorbi said. Later Sudanese soldiers arrived and captured two rebels, whom they are holding, Dorbi added.

The soldiers found the first truck had been looted.

The pilgrims who survived the attack had come to the African Union mission and asked for help, Dorbi said.

The mission was set up this year to monitor a cease-fire between the rebels and government and allied militia. It is currently being expanded to more than 3,300 cease-fire monitors and troops.

The conflict provoked a counterinsurgency in which pro-government Arab militia have raped and killed people and burned their villages, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

The United Nations says conflict has claimed 70,000 lives, mostly from disease and hunger, and displaced about 1.6 million people.