Khartoum accuses Darfur rebels of attacking town

KHARTOUM, April 6 (AFP) — Sudan’s government accused rebels Wednesday of attacking a town and wounding several residents in the country’s embattled western Darfur region.

A Sudan Liberation Army rebel stands guard at Gellab, a village in the desert east of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state November 8, 2004. (Reuters).

“While the Sudanese people were on Tuesday protesting the unjust (United Nations) Security Council resolution 1593, the rebel movement exercised the highest degree of chaos and barbarism in the town of Tawilah, injuring innocent people,” said a statement issued by the local government in northern Darfur.

The rebel group was not identified, nor was the number of casualties released.

A spokesman for the African Union, which is monitoring a fragile ceasefire between government-sponsored militias and Darfur rebels, said it had “no evidence” to support the allegations.

“An investigation is still going on,” added Noureddine Mezni.

The UN Security Council passed a resolution last week demanding that the International Criminal Court prosecute those behind Khartoum’s two-year-old scorched earth campaign against ethnic minority rebels in Darfur.

Marked by mass killings, torture, rape and pillage, the campaign has left more than 300,000 dead and 2.4 million people displaced, according to a British parliament report.