The clashes on Friday and Saturday were the latest in a
series reported between the government and the Sudan Liberation Movement loyal
to Minni Arcua Minnawi, who signed the Darfur Peace Agreement.
Sudan’s army declared Minnawi’s forces a military target
this month, accusing him of breaking a cease-fire and plotting to join other
insurgents still fighting the government.
“There have been two ground attacks, one yesterday morning
and another today at around 11 a.m. (0800 GMT),” said Chris Cycmanick,
spokesman for Darfur’s joint UN/African Union UNAMID peacekeeping force. “They
were attacks by SAF (Sudan Armed Forces) on Minni Minnawi elements.”
Both attacks were on the village of Khor Abeche, 80 km
northeast of the capital of south Darfur, Nyala, he said.
At least one person was killed and 16 injured in the first
clash which forced up to 250 civilians to take shelter at a nearby UNAMID base,
Cycmanick said.
At least five people were injured in Saturday’s assault when
attackers also set fire to houses, he added.
No one was immediately available for comment from the army.
Minnawi became a presidential assistant after signing the
internationally-brokered accord in the Nigerian capital Abuja in May 2006. The
deal was boycotted by Darfur’s two other main rebels forces and did nothing to
end the fighting and banditry in the remote western region.
After elections in April Minnawi was not re-appointed to the
presidential post, technically the fourth most senior position in the country.
He recently moved to the capital of south Sudan, Juba.
Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in Darfur in 2003,
accusing the Khartoum government of neglecting the region. Khartoum set out to
crush the rebellion with troops and mostly Arab militias, unleashing a wave of
violence which Washington and some activists call genocide.
