Sudan government troops poised for renewed offensive in Darfur: AU general

ABUJA, Dec 17 (AFP) — The Sudanese government has carried out an offensive in the western region of Darfur and appears to be preparing further military action despite promises to respect a truce, the commander of the African Union observer force in Darfur warned Friday.

General Festus Okonkwo, the commander of the African Union observer force in Darfur. (AP).

“One thing that must be said today is that the situation in Darfur has become more dangerous with the build-up of forces in the last two weeks … The present situation in Darfur is therefore that of a timebomb which could explode at any moment,” General Festus Okonkwo said at meeting in Abuja.

Briefing delegates and international observers at stalled peace talks here, the Nigerian officer recommended that the Khartoum government should be pressed to withdraw its newly deployed forces from Darfur and called on the region’s rebel movements to remove roadblocks and halt their looting raids.

“The quantity of arms and ammunition brought into Darfur to meet the present build-up of troops in the region is so astronomical that the issue is no longer whether there will be fighting or not, but when the fighting will start,” he said in his report, a copy of which was passed to AFP.

Darfur’s two main rebel movements have suspended their participation in the peace talks in Abuja in protest at what they call the government’s continuing offensive against them in breach of a ceasefire deal signed in the Chadian capital Ndjamena in April of this year.

Okonkwo commands an 834-strong African Union force of military observers and protection troops in Darfur tasked with overseeing the ceasefire. He is in Abuja to brief government and rebel delegates and international observers at the suspended peace conference on the situation on the ground.

Sudan’s chief negotiator in Abuja, Agriculture Minister Majzoub al-Khalifa, told reporters that government forces had been ordered to halt their operations and had done so, except in an area near the village of Labado where he said they had been attacked by rebels on Friday morning.

But Okonkwo said the operation was continuing as late as Thursday.

“Military activities on the ground on December 15 indicated that the force was poised for a withdrawal operation, but on December 16 it was confirmed that the brigade-sized force instead resumed its advance and is now deployed eight kilometres (five miles) west of Labado,” the general’s report said.

“From a military point of view this indicates an offensive, which if launched would be prejudicial to the peace process,” he said.

Rebel negotiator Adam Chogarsh, of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), told reporters: “We are still maintaining our position that unless the government withdraws its troops to their original position we when signed the Ndjamena agreement we will not continue with the talks.”

The general told the closed door meeting that the Sudanese government build-up began on December 5, when two cargo aircraft landed at Nyala in southern Darfur and unloaded boxes of ammunition. At midnight on December 7 a 40-vehicle military convoy left the northern town of El-Fasher to join the forces in the south.

“As a follow-up to the build-up of forces … GoS (government of Sudan) attacked Marlla on December 8, while over 1,000 troops were concentrated at Sani Afendo,” Okonkwo said. Rebels pulled out of Marlla when they saw the size of the force arrayed against them.

Nevertheless, government aircraft attacked the town, killing six and wounding 15 people. On December 10 the SLM/A attacked a convoy of 80 policemen, killing three of them, leading to a government attack the following day to seize the village of Ishma, the report said.

On December 12, while the army was building a defensive position in Ishma, “the Janjaweed armed militias (allied to Khartoum) moved ahead of the force… and began looting and burning villages including Hashaba, Un Zaifa and concentrating their loot at Konkono village in the presence of some GoS soldiers.”