More dead in Darfur as Annan accuses Sudan

Recent fighting in Darfur has killed more than 60 people as armed factions battle over territory ahead of a planned disarmament, African and UN officials have said.

Sudan’s army yesterday denied breaching the peace agreement.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a report released yesterday, accused Sudan’s government of violating international humanitarian law by barring fuel, food and relief aid to civilians in Darfur.

Fighting in Darfur has not abated since the May 5 deal to end the conflict, which has left more than 180,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced in the arid western region since 2003.

“The problem seems to be that everyone wants to maximise their territory before the truce and disarmament actually come into effect,” said Moussa Hamani, chief information officer for the African Union in Sudan.

Scattered fights have erupted in recent days in southern Darfur, where Sudan’s army and police have said they would disarm bandits, according to UN and African Union officials.

Nomadic Arab tribal militia, known as Janjaweed, launched two separate attacks on Friday that killed a total of 35 ethnic African villagers, Hamani said on Sunday.

In a separate incident on Friday, villagers attacked a Janjaweed militia in the southern Darfur area of Kalaka. The fighting killed 11 farmers and eight Janjaweed, the United Nations said. It said villagers were retaliating for a Janjaweed raid that killed the brother of top rebel leader Minni Minnawi on May 5, the day Minnawi signed the peace agreement.

Speaking by phone from neighbouring Chad, Minnawi said his brother Yussef was not involved in the rebellion but that the Janjaweed could have targeted him anyway. He said his troops were not involved in Friday’s attack and that he had heard reports that villagers attacked because Janjaweed were looting.

On Thursday, Sudanese army and police fought about 100 fighters near Manawashi, according to the UN mission. Seven fighters were killed and two arrested.

The May 5 agreement called for a cease-fire within 72 hours, which was ignored. It also said the government has 37 days to submit a plan to disarm the Janjaweed, and that rebel movements will give up their weapons once they see the militia has.

Anticipating a surge in violence, the UN’s security assessment office in Sudan advised UN workers and international organisations to limit their movement in the area.

Annan’s new report to the UN Security Council described in frank terms how the people of Darfur have been exposed to more violence in recent months, even as aid groups are cutting the programs because of insufficient funding.

Government embargoes on goods entering areas of Darfur held by the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army “have prevented the access of civilians to vital goods and constitute a violation of international humanitarian law”, Annan wrote.

The latest killings came ahead of an expected visit to Khartoum today by UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN said. A former UN envoy to Afghanistan and Iraq, Brahimi is expected to push the government to accept last week’s UN Security Council resolution for the world body to take over Darfur peacekeeping from the African Union.

The UN spokesman in Sudan, Baha Elkoussy, said the mission had received unconfirmed reports that a group of about 1,000 Janjaweed were massing in northern Darfur in an apparent threat to the Kutum area.

“The problem is there are so many incidents taking place over such a large area that it is hard to investigate everything,” Elkoussy said on the phone from the capital, Khartoum.

Minnawi also said yesterday that Sudanese troops, possibly backed by pro-government Janjaweed militia, attacked his fighters on Friday at their Dar es-Salam base in northern Darfur. He said no one was wounded.

“This incident does not make us lose trust in the validity of the peace agreement, these are difficulties that can be overcome,” Minnawi said.

Sudanese army Brig. Osman Mohamed al-Aghbash denied the report and said the army also was committed to the truce.

“We are discharging our duty in defensive cases,” he said, but declined to explain.