210 Darfur rebels surrender

2004-08-07 13:46

Khartoum - More than 200 members of a rebel group fighting Sudanese government forces in the war-torn Darfur region surrendered to the authorities, official media outlets reported on Saturday.

According to the state-run Omdurman radio and several governmental newspapers, 10 field commanders and 200 men of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) announced in the border town of Tina they were defecting and joining government forces.

Reports quoted the commanders as declaring at a ceremony held there for the occasion that their defection was prompted by the "unacceptable" treatment inflicted on them by rebel leaders.

"The rebellion was not launched for the development and rehabilitation of Darfur but for destroying the region and displacing its people," they said at the ceremony led by North Darfur Governor Osman Yusuf Kibir.

Kibir welcomed the defectors and pledged to absorb them into the government army and police, the reports said.

The defectors' leaders pledged to bring back 146 000 refugees from neighbouring Chad to the Tina region to support local farming.

An agreement reached on Friday between Khartoum and the United Nations urges the Sudanese authorities to create safe areas in Darfur within 30 days so that displaced civilians can return to their land.

The agreement, which is due to be signed on Monday in Khartoum, calls for a halt of government military actions against rebel groups in Darfur in order to ease the humanitarian crisis there.

The deal also urges the Sudanese authorities to curb the activities of the Janjaweed, proxy militias drawn mainly from nomadic Arab tribes and accused of attacking African farmers in Darfur.

- AFP