| Rebels from west Sudan said yesterday government-armed militias and warplanes killed at least 24 people over the past four days, forcing civilians to flee to rebel camps and mountain caves in the arid Darfur region. The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), one of two main rebel groups that launched a revolt in the Darfur area in February, said two Antonov planes bombed two villages on Monday. Government officials were not immediately available. "Eighteen people were killed and 25 wounded. Two villages were destroyed and the civilians left the dead unburied and fled to the mountains," JEM general coordinator Abu Bakr Hamid Al Nur told Reuters by telephone. Al Nur said the bombing took place in the Jabel Moon area in Western Darfur state near the Chadian border, where authorities have imposed a curfew. The other Darfur rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), had no information about the attack but said government forces often bombed the area. Both groups said civilians had fled to their camps from a town in neighbouring Northern Darfur state. Al Nur said civilians fleeing from Kebkabiya to a JEM camp 24km north said government-armed militia fighters looted the town’s market on Saturday and killed six people. |