Sudan says killed two rebel leaders in west -paper
KHARTOUM, Aug 18 (Reuters) – Sudanese government forces have inflicted heavy losses on a rebel force in fighting in western Sudan and killed two of the group’s commanders, a government- owned newspaper reported on Monday.
The government has said it will not negotiate with the rebel Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M), which emerged as a fighting force in February, although it is currently holding peace talks with another southern-based rebel group.
“The outlaw forces in Northern Darfur sustained heavy losses during the beating they received from government forces in the area of Dissa, 27 km (17 miles) north of Kutum,” the Al-Anbaa daily said, without giving an exact casualty figure.
The town of Kutum is about 900 km (560 miles) west of the capital Khartoum.
The paper did not say when the clashes took place, but that the fighting left “hundreds killed, top of which was the commander of the infiltrators, Khatir Tor al-Khila, one of the most prominent rebels”.
The deputy leader of the SLA/M, Abdallah Abakr, was among those killed in the clashes, it added.
There was no immediate comment from the rebel group about the report.
The SLA/M comprises mainly fighters drawn from African tribes and accuses the Islamist government in Khartoum of excluding the arid Darfur region from development and power.
The governor of Northern Darfur said on Sunday that 26 people were killed in Kutum earlier this month when pro- government fighters moved in after the withdrawal of SLA/M forces.
But an SLA/M spokesman accused Arab militias of killing 63 people in Kutum.
Fighting between African farming communities and Arab cattle herders is common in Darfur, fed by rivalry over scarce water resources and pasture.
The main rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) said on Monday that its peace talks with the government had hit an impasse over procedure and mediators were trying to solve the problem.
Government officials and mediators were not immediately available for comment.
The civil war in Africa’s biggest country erupted in 1983 and largely pits the Islamic government in the north against rebels seeking more autonomy in the mainly Christian or animist south.
Oil, ethnicity and religion have also fuelled the 20-year conflict that has killed two million people.