KHARTOUM SUDANESE rebels have an army connection in the Darfur region, said the rebels seized on Saturday, after peacekeepers expresses concern about the escalation of violence.
The pre-dawn attack happened on Friday about five kilometres (three miles) northeast of Kebkabiya in North Darfur State, said Ibrahim Al-Hillu, spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Army, Abdelwahid Nur faction.
"We caught the compound and all equipment inside, with five wounded on our side," he told AFP from his base in France.
Hillu added that the rebels repulsed a counterattack Government then and now "their body count."
Sudanese army spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Kebkabiya is located approximately 150 kilometres west of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State where violence surged.
Earlier this month, said the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) "escalation of violence has become a source of serious concern".
Since July its citizens increasingly at risk of the inter-municipal fighting, harassment by militia and sporadic skirmishes between rebels and Government forces, particularly in North Darfur, UN chief ban Kimoon said in October.
The Nur faction has several hundreds of fighters and a "sphere of influence" is limited to the mountainous area of Jebel Marra, South of Kebkabiya, said a report of July of the Small Arms Survey, a Swiss-based independent research project.
The fertile Jebel Marra is home to the non-Arab Fur-people who gave their name to Darfur (Land of the coat).
Government military operations and air strikes have regularly targeted the area, said the Small Arms Survey.
Government troops are now massing for a new attack on Eastern Jebel Marra, according to Hillu.
Although valid down from the peak, violence in Darfur nine years after Nur and other ethnic minorities remains rebels rose against the Government in Khartoum, which they want to overthrow Arabdominated.
Impoverished Darfur is also dealing with a rare outbreak of yellow fever that health officials say is suspected of killing 127 people in the region since early September.
Post a Comment
Post a Comment