KHARTOUM, 9 October 2007 — Government troops and militia have attacked a town belonging to the only Darfur rebel faction to sign a 2006 peace deal with them, the faction said yesterday. “Government planes have attacked Muhajiriya, which belongs to us, and government forces and Janjaweed militia are fighting our forces,” said Khalid Abakar, a senior representative from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).
Abakar is from the SLA faction led by Minni Arcua Minnawi, the only one of three rebel negotiating factions to sign a May 2006 peace deal with Khartoum. The movement then became part of the government and controls Muhajiriya town in South Darfur. Abakar said the area was still seeing heavy fighting.
A Darfur commander from a rival SLA faction, which did not sign the deal, confirmed the attack. “Right now the government is bombing Muhajiriya heavily,” said Abu Bakr Kadu of the SLA Unity faction. “They have moved militia and government forces there,” he added.
Kadu said the government was also massing troops near Tine, on the border with Chad, in preparation for an offensive on rebel-controlled areas in North Darfur. “It’s clear that as everyone else is preparing for peace talks, the government is still implementing its military solution,” he told Reuters by satellite phone from Darfur. The ongoing fighting in Darfur has cast doubts over the success of peace talks due to start in Libya on Oct. 27.
Another key rebel leader yesterday accused the Sudanese Army of razing a town in the troubled region, killing more than 100 people in retaliation for an attack on African Union troops. “The army launched an offensive against the town after the attack on the African Union Mission in Sudan and we asked our fighters to leave the town taking with them civilians to spare them reprisals,” Suleiman Jamous told AFP by telephone from Chad.
The town of Haskanita in south Darfur was destroyed on Saturday after a Sept. 29 attack on a nearby African Union base that left 10 peacekeepers dead and drew worldwide condemnation. Jamous, former humanitarian coordinator for the Sudan Liberation Movement, said the army and its proxy militia the Janjaweed carried out the attack. “Certain civilians stayed behind and were the target of an army attack. I heard of somewhere between 86 and 100 dead but I can’t confirm,” he said.
The United Nations confirmed the town had been burned with just the Mosque and school left standing. Most of its 7,000 population had fled. “Around 105 people killed is the last figure we have,” Jamous told Reuters yesterday. “There are many others in the bush who may die of thirst — they need water,” he added.
The AU base near Haskanita was attacked and destroyed on Sept. 29 with 10 soldiers killed. The AU asked the government to secure the area while they withdrew, leaving no international observers in the region beset with clashes between the army and rebels.
Sudan’s Army said a fire, the cause of which was unclear, started in the market and spread to the rest of the town, and said the United Nations had exaggerated the damage. “There was a fire but it was brought under control,” an army spokesman said. “The United Nations have made this into something bigger than it is.” Rebels and government blame each other for the attack on the AU base. Initially almost 60 peacekeepers went missing.
