KHARTOUM, 13 May 2003 — The Sudanese Army admitted yesterday that a number of its troops were killed or wounded during fighting in northwestern Sudan, but insisted the government retained control of the area. An army spokesman, Gen. Mohamed Bashir Suleiman, said in a statement that a group of “armed outlaws” on Sunday attacked the police and security headquarters and army garrison in Mallit town, before looting a bank and the market. Mallit lies just north of Al-Fashir, capital of the state of North Darfur, where a group calling itself the Sudan Liberation Army Movement surfaced for the first time in February.
Suleiman’s statement, which was released by his office, said joint government forces resisted the attackers. “A group of an alliance of bandits and outlaws assaulted the quiet town of Mallit, starting with the police and security offices and the town’s garrison, to paralyze security,” it said. The group “went on looting the Bank of Khartoum (branch) and the market as their main goal,” said the statement. “Our army, police, security and popular defense forces confronted the attackers and forced them to flee,” the statement said. The town was now under control by government troops, “a number of whom fell as martyrs”, it said. Some other troops were wounded, it added.
First Vice President Ali Osman Taha said that, in launching their attacks, the “group of outlaws are planning to create a political row to make the government respond to their demands”. Although those demands were not specified by the rebels themselves or the government, Taha implied that they included power sharing on a regional-ethnic basis.
Meanwhile, a team of medical experts from the World Health Organization has arrived at the site in south Sudan where an unidentified disease has killed 10 and infected 178, a UN official said yesterday. “A WHO team arrived Sunday at Ikotos in southeast Sudan and they are investigating reports of the disease outbreak both in Ikotos and nearby Imotong,” Ben Parker, spokesman for the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Mukesh Kapila, told Agence France Presse in Nairobi.
He said that the team had been sent to “investigate reports of an unknown disease that has infected 178 people and caused 10 deaths over last two weeks.” He said the team included a WHO epidemiologist and a biologist from the Kenyan Medical Research Institute. “We expect to have more information from them in next day or two. Results of tests not expected until early next week,” said Parker.
