Sudan breaks ceasefire by bombing Darfur village

KHARTOUM, Jan 27, 2005 (Reuters) — Sudan violated its ceasefire agreement with Darfur rebels by bombing a North Darfur state village, sources in Khartoum’s aid community said on Thursday.

Al-Malam on the border between North and South Darfur is an area the government said the rebels attacked earlier this week. They accused the rebels of burning eight villages and killing dozens of people. The rebels deny the charges.

“The planes were flying very low just south of El-Fasher and then the explosions were heard from that direction,” one source said. “It was near the al-Malam area.”

The sources also said Arab militias, known locally as Janjaweed, attacked a village in South Darfur state, killing three people. But villagers captured the militia leader.

African Union forces are investigating the bombing incident, AU political officer Jean Baptiste Natama said.

“There was some use of aircraft — Antonov 24s. That’s what we know,” he said.

Natama said the AU could not go into an area where there might be bombing, but said AU troops would be on the ground on Thursday to confirm whether bombing had taken place or not.

The AU are monitoring a shaky ceasefire signed in April last year. There have been close to 100 confirmed violations of the ceasefire since late last year.

The government says that although the ceasefire bans bombing it does not prohibit the government from sending its planes on reconnaissance missions over Darfur.

After years of tribal conflict over scarce resources in arid Darfur, two main rebel groups took up arms accusing Khartoum of neglect and of using Janjaweed to loot and burn non-Arab villages.

Khartoum admits arming some militias to fight the rebels but denies any links to the Janjaweed, calling them outlaws.