(Xinhua)-- A commander of a rebel movement in the conflict-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur has been killed in fighting near the Chadian capital N'djamena between the Chadian government troops and rebel forces, Sudan's official SUNA news agency reported on Monday. Mohamed Abdallah, commander of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), was killed on Sunday as his force was moving to support the Chadian army which was fighting with the Chadian opposition forces near the capital.
SUNA said the Chadian opposition forces were obliged to withdraw from the Chadian Adri town Monday after it had come under shelling by rockets to preserve the safety of the civilians. The report also said the Chadian opposition forces had managed to inflict heavy losses to a Chadian battalion coming from the border with Central Africa while it was moving to support the government forces.
JEM is one of the main rebel movements in Darfur, where some ten thousand civilians have been killed since conflicts erupted in 2003, according to statistics of the Sudanese government, while western media claimed that more than 200,000 people have been killed there in the past five years.