ABUJA, 18 December 2004 — The Sudanese government has carried out an offensive in the western region of Darfur and appears to be preparing further military action despite promises to respect a truce, the commander of the African Union observer force in Darfur warned yesterday.

“One thing that must be said today is that the situation in Darfur has become more dangerous with the build-up of forces in the last two weeks. ... The present situation in Darfur is therefore that of a time bomb which could explode at any moment,” Gen. Festus Okonkwo said at meeting in Abuja.

Briefing delegates and international observers at stalled peace talks here, the Nigerian officer recommended that Khartoum should be pressed to withdraw its newly deployed forces from Darfur and called on the region’s rebel movements to remove roadblocks and halt their looting raids.

“The quantity of arms and ammunition brought into Darfur to meet the present build-up of troops in the region is so astronomical that the issue is no longer whether there will be fighting or not, but when the fighting will start,” he said in his report.

Darfur’s two main rebel movements have suspended their participation in the peace talks in Abuja in protest at what they call the government’s continuing offensive against them in breach of a cease-fire deal.

Sudan’s chief negotiator in Abuja, Agriculture Minister Majzoub Al-Khalifa, told reporters that government forces had been ordered to halt their operations and had done so, except in an area near the village of Labado where he said they had been attacked by rebels yesterday morning.

But Okonkwo said the operation was continuing as late as Thursday.

Meanwhile, a third rebel group yesterday signed a peace pact with the Khartoum government at talks in Chad. The eight-point accord, signed by representatives from Khartoum and the recently formed National Movement for Reform and Development, calls for a cessation of hostilities, the freeing of political prisoners and prisoners of war, the voluntary return of displaced persons and disarmament of militias.