Sudan says Darfur rebel groups involved in attack

KHARTOUM, Dec 29 (Reuters) – Khartoum said on Wednesday the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), which is bound by a ceasefire in Darfur, was involved in an attack this week on government forces near the troubled western region.

Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebels walk through an unidentified village in the desert west of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, November 8, 2004. (Reuters).

A new rebel group, calling itself the Sudanese National Movement for the Eradication of Marginalisation (SNMEM), claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack on Ghubeish, a town in Western Kordofan state that borders Darfur.

Darfur watchers say the new group may be a front organisation for the SLM to continue its campaign against the government without appearing to break the ceasefire.

The government said the SLM had played a part.

“There is evidence showing the involvement of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) in the attack on Ghubeish,” State Minister for the Interior Ahmed Mohamed Haroun told reporters.

The SLM, one of two main rebel groups, is bound by a ceasefire deal agreed with the government in April, although both sides have regularly accused the other of violations.

SNNEM first emerged last week when it claimed responsibility for an attack on a small oil installation.

“It seems the SNMEM is the SLM with a different name,” said one employee of an international organisation in Sudan.

“They feel that if they use another name, they can act without being bound by the agreements they have signed with the government,” the employee, who closely follows the activities of rebel groups and did not want to be identified, told Reuters.

The SLM and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which is also bound by the ceasefire, complain of neglect and accuse the government of arming Arab militias known as Janjaweed to burn and loot African villages.

The government said it used some militias but denies links to the Janjaweed, whom it calls outlaws.

Separately, Sudan’s official SUNA news agency reported the the government released 91 men who had been sentenced to death for their role in a tribal clash that left dozens dead in Darfur in 2001, before a rebellion in the region erupted last year.

It said the men were released after at a settlement was reached between the two Arab tribes, al-Muaalia and Reizagat.

Tribal clashes over scarce resources have been common feature of life in Darfur for years, but fighting only flared up into a full-scale rebellion in 2003.

Analysts say such death sentences are sometimes overturned after “blood money” is paid to the victim’s family.