About 30 rebels and an undisclosed number of government troops were killed during fighting in western Sudan near the border with Chad. Sudanese officials said government troops on Friday repulsed an attack by forces from the rebel Sudan Liberation Army, a little-known group operating in the Darfur region of western Sudan. The governor of North Darfur state, Osman Mohamed Yusuf Kibir, also rejected rebel claims the group overran the town of Tinah, about 560 miles west of Khartoum. Kibir said Sudanese soldiers killed 30 rebels and arrested 12 others. "Our gallant troops countered an attack by the rebels inflicting heavy material and human loss on them," he said. Kibir said government soldiers chased and killed some rebels who fled into Chad. An undisclosed number of Sudanese troops also died during the fighting. Darfur is a multiethnic region on the border with Chad with some 80 tribes and ethnic groups divided between nomads of Arab origin and farmers of African origin.
| It used to be a separate country (using the term loosely) and its inhabitant object to the Arabs' (also using the term loosely) habit of cleansing them ethnically... |
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