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| Africa Horn |
| Militias clash with ex-rebels in Darfur town |
| 2006-12-05 |
| Militias fought members of a former rebel group in the main town in the Darfur region of Sudan on Monday in clashes which the rebels said left up to seven people dead. Violence erupted after truckloads of men from the Janjaweed militia, which the Sudan government is accused of backing, entered the town of El Fasher and started looting the market, witnesses and the former rebels said. The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), a rebel group that signed a peace deal with the government in May, said five members of its armed wing were killed. The death toll could not be independently confirmed. "We have five martyrs ... two other civilians were also killed," SLM Secretary-General Mustafa Teerab told Reuters. "They (the Janjaweed) looted some shops in the market and then fled," he said. The African Union, which has a 7,000-strong force in Darfur, said it was investigating the cause of the clashes. "We have unconfirmed reports that five people were seriously wounded and two people were killed from the SLM," an African Union spokesman in Khartoum said. Rights groups say the Sudanese government adopted the Janjaweed as an auxiliary force when rebellion flared in the remote western region of Darfur in 2003 after rebels took up arms against the government, charging it with neglect. Khartoum denies supporting the Janjaweed. |
| Posted by:Fred |