A "serious incident" has occurred between soldiers from the Sudanese army and members of a commission, led by Chad, monitoring a ceasefire in Sudan's Darfur region, corroborating sources said. A ceasefire commission team had travelled Wednesday to Itou town, north of Nyala in southern Darfur, to investigate accusations made by the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) that 65 civilians had been killed Tuesday in a bombing raid by the Sudanese air force. | You might think that killing 65 civilians would qualify as a "serious incident". Unless you've been reading Rantburg, that is. |
According to the rebels' military spokesman, Colonel Abdallah Abdel Kerim, the ceasefire commission team was attacked by troops from the Sudanese armed forces. | Bomb civilians, no problem. Commit genocide, no problem. Attack the ceasefire team, NOW we've got a problem! |
"They set their car on fire and injured a Chadian colonel," Abdel Kerim told AFP by telephone. A source close to the ceasefire commission confirmed that an "incident" had occurred but would not corroborate the rebels' version of the story. The source also confirmed that there had been a bombing raid on Itou on Tuesday, but did not give a casualty figure. "Once again, the Sudanese government is not abiding by its commitments and continues to violate the ceasefire," JEM's Abdel Kerim said. "We are seriously considering pulling out of negotiations in Abuja," the Nigerian capital, where talks between the warring sides in Darfur are due to resume next week. |