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| Africa: East |
| A little more on the Sudanese offensive in Darfur |
| 2004-02-01 |
| The rebels appear to be folding in this one, so it looks like the NIF wins this round enormous casualty figures or not - but take a look at all the bombing that’s going on. Sudan’s army has captured a town from rebels in the western region of Darfur and seven other rebel camps in the area, state radio reported on Friday. The radio quoted an army statement issued on Thursday as saying government forces had driven rebels out of the town of Tine, which straddles Sudan’s unmarked border with Chad. Fighting between government troops and rebels has escalated in the last month, forcing thousands of refugees to flee across the border. The UN refugee agency appealed for funds to help move 135,000 refugees to safer places further into Chad. "We are in a race against time to relocate refugees from the volatile border area to safer sites further inside Chad," Kris Janoswki, spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a briefing. Rebels say Sudanese warplanes have been bombing 15 to 25 villages a day. Journalists on Monday saw a Sudanese government warplane bomb a house in the Sudanese part of Tine, which was mainly deserted apart from a couple of rebels. The army statement also said government forces had "recaptured and secured" seven rebel camps in Darfur, including Abu Gamra and Kornoi, both in northern Darfur state. The army said Kornoi was the biggest rebel base. It did not say when Tine and the bases had been captured. A Geneva-based peace group, the Henry Dunant Centre, said on Friday three rebel groups in western Sudan had agreed to talks in Geneva next month and it hoped the government would also take part. Aid workers and local residents said a Sudanese warplane attacking the rebels had bombed the Chadian side of the border on Thursday, killing two people and injuring 15 others. The World Food Programme (WFP), another UN agency, said it was racing to deliver food to refugees in the area. "All the ingredients for a humanitarian crisis are there -- difficult access, not enough food or water, and nightmare logistics," WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Tine is an ethnic Zaghawa town and the center of major battles in 1990-91 when the Sudanese helped bring Idriss Deby, a Zaghawa, to power in Chad. They are an ethnicity that does not frighten easy, and if they are now in a battle with Khartoum I am sure most Zaghawa recall that it took thirty years of fighting in one war and another to bring Deby to power. This is going to cost Khartoum a lot of money before it's over, and it may not be over for a long long time. |
| Posted by: Tancred 2004-2-1 2:10:21 PM |