Sudanese army claims to have killed 300 rebels in Darfur

Published on Friday 16 July 2010 19:21

MORE than 300 fighters from Darfur's rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) were killed in recent clashes, it was claimed yesterday.

Peacekeepers confirmed the Sudanese army had clashed with JEM forces early last week as part of a surge in violence since the insurgents suspended participation in peace talks in early May.

General Al-Tayeb al-Musbah Osman told the state Suna news agency that the army had destroyed scores of JEM vehicles and recaptured fuel tankers seized by the rebels.

Faltering peace talks have done nothing to quell the fighting, which first flared in 2003 when mostly non-Arab insurgents took up arms against the government, demanding more autonomy.

Tension is high in Darfur, days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to face charges of orchestrating genocide in Darfur during the counter-insurgency campaign by government troops and allied militias.

The court last year indicted Bashir on seven charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Sudan refuses to recognise the court and accuses the western media of exaggerating the conflict.

Darfur's joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force said last week that the army had clashed with JEM fighters near the Adola mountains and near Kuma in north Darfur on Tuesday.

The under-equipped peacekeepers said they were also investigating reports of a third clash in Daba Tago, near the north Darfur settlement of Mellit. Peacekeepers are expected to patrol an area the size of Spain in a bid to prevent further clashes in an area where Muslim militias have striven to drive out settled African farmers.