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Darfur rebels 'seize' town
03/01/2008 08:28 - (SA)
Khartoum - Darfur rebels in Sudan said they had taken a town on Wednesday around Geneina, the main city of west Darfur, which they claimed to have surrounded.
But there was no immediate confirmation of the rebel claim - made by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) - from the United Nations officials or Sudanese authorities.
"We have taken control this afternoon of the town of Sirba, 30km to the north of Geneina," said JEM commander Abdelaziz Nour el-Asher.
He said: "We hunted down the army in the town and chased the soldiers out, who boarded about 45 vehicles and fled to take refuge in Geneina." He was speaking from an undeclared location in Darfur - the western region of Sudan, which had been ravaged by a bloody civil war for nearly five years.
He added: "We took 17 prisoners, including some officers." Khartoum accused the JEM rebels of operating with the support of the Chad authorities.
The JEM has claimed several attacks in recent months, notably two on foreign-operated oil fields in the neighbouring region of Kordofan.
The group had refused to take part in UN-African Union sponsored peace talks aimed at ending the violence in Darfur, where 200 000 people had died and more than two million been displaced, according to international organisations.
- AFP
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