Sudan’s army dismissed the accusation, saying its only
recent action had been a single attack on a non-rebel armed group that had been
harassing travelers in a different part of the territory.
A series of ceasefires, peace deals and negotiations has
failed to stop fighting in Sudan’s western Darfur region which surged in 2003
when rebels took up arms against the government.
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants
against Sudan’s president Omar Bashir to face charges of masterminding genocide
and war crimes during Khartoum’s brutal campaign to crush the uprising.
Khartoum refuses to recognise the court.
The rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) told Reuters government
troops, bombers and attack helicopters had launched a series of attacks on
their positions around the village of Jawa in the remote Eastern Jabel Marra
region from Sunday onward.
“This week there has been very big fighting. All this time
the government air forces are bombarding the areas all the day and today this
morning ... four villages were burned,” said SLA spokesman Ibrahim Al-Helwu by
phone from Paris.
Darfur’s joint UN/African Union UNAMID peacekeeping mission
told Reuters it had no information to back up the rebel report.
One UN source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the
mission had received reports from a reliable source of clashes between the army
and SLA on Monday around the villages of Jawa and Suni but could not confirm
them independently.
Humanitarian workers said the government had imposed a near
blanket travel ban on parts of South Darfur, including land around the
mountainous Jabel Marra region, following a surge of fighting early this year.
UN and gov2ernment aid agencies managed to stage their first mission to the
area in six months early in September.
Sudan’s army spokesman accused the rebels of making up the
reports. “There is no war in this area. There has been no fighting in Darfur,”
he said.
“The Sudanese Army has been using the road between Deribat
(in eastern Jabel Marra) and Nyala (the capital of south Darfur state).
Whenever they (the rebels) see us in an area, they accuse us of attacking
villages.” Both the SLA, led by Paris-based Abdel Wahed Mohamed Al-Nur, and the
insurgent Justice and Equality Movement are boycotting peace talks with Sudan’s
government in the Qatari capital Doha.
The separate Liberation and Justice Movement — an umbrella
group of smaller rebel factions — said it was hoping to resume the protracted
negotiations in Qatar on Saturday or Sunday.
