The ongoing clashes between fighters of the two main rebel groups in the Darfur region have left 20 dead and dozens injured, the Sudanese Media Centre reported yesterday.
The information outlet affiliated with the government said the fighting between rebels of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) was prompted by a disagreement over command of forces.
It quoted Ismail Tur al-Jer, an SLM field commander, as saying hostilities erupted after he turned down a proposal to merge his forces with those of the JEM and place them under the command of a JEM officer.
He accused the JEM, a group the government has accused of having ties to jailed Islamic leader Hasan al-Turabi, of promoting the agenda of organisations that “are distant from the Darfur issue”.
Many supporters of al-Turabi, a one-time ally of Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir, are in jail awaiting trial on an array of charges, including fuelling the 21-month conflict in Darfur and plotting to overthrow the government.
Tens of thousands of people have died, an estimated 1.45 million have been displaced from their homes and 200,000 have been forced into exile during the conflict.
The United Nations says the Darfur dispute has precipitated the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Meanwhile, in a grim report on the 20-month conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says violence intensified in October and there are strong indications of war crimes “on a large and systematic scale.”
He accused the government and rebels of trying to take more territory in Darfur instead of complying with UN demands to end the violence, disarm government-backed Arab militias blamed for many attacks and punish the perpetrators.
Jan Pronk, the top U.N. envoy to Sudan who wrote the report, will present it to the Security Council on Thursday. It recommends that members take “prompt action” to get the government and rebels to comply with the UN resolutions and urge countries with influence to exert pressure on the parties to negotiate a peace deal.
The United Nations has called Darfur the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, saying the conflict there has claimed 70,000 lives since March mostly through disease and hunger.
Originally a clash between black African farmers and Arab nomads over the distribution of scarce resources, the conflict has grown into a counterinsurgency in which progovernment Arab militia have allegedly raped, killed and burned the villages of their enemy.
According to the report circulated Wednesday, the estimate of people affected by the conflict rose during September from 1.8 million to 2 million and is expected to continue climbing in the months to come.
The increase stems mainly from the growing number of people who have fled their homes, now 1.6 million, the report said. A further 400,000 people are in need of huma-nitarian assistance.
Pronk said the 2 million figure is a 100 percent increase in the number of people needing humanitarian assistance since April. Donors have funded 75 percent of the money needed for Darfur this year, $397 million of $534 million. He appealed for the rest.
The report also cited various sources as saying a new rebel group that calls itself the National Movement for Reformation and Development has attacked government troops and threatened a small African contingent seeking to stabilize the area.
Until the government starts taking more than “pinprick” action against the perpetrators, the report warned, no displaced person will dare return home and no group will agree to disarm.
“Without an end to impunity banditry goes from strength to strength, menacing the population and obstructing the delivery of aid to desperate people in isolated areas,” it said.
The report cited the abduction and alleged rape of seven women in West Darfur, the massacre of at least 14 civilians in a market in South Darfur and an attack by armed men on horseback who killed four civilians and looted cattle in a village in North Darfur.
“Neither side is refraining from conducting attacks against the other or exercising restraint when attacked,” the report said.
The report accused the Sudanese government of failing to bring the perpetrators of widespread killings, rapes, looting and village burnings to justice.
An international commission appointed by Annan began work on Oct. 25 and has three months to study human rights violations and determine whether or not a genocide occurred in Darfur.
“There are strong indications that war crimes and crimes against humanity have occurred in Darfur on a large and systematic scale,” the report said. “This has been confirmed by a number of senior UN human rights experts who have visited the region.”
