Darfur rebels accuse army of fresh attacks

Khartoum: Rebels in Sudan's restive Darfur region on Thursday accused the army of bombing their positions, breaking a period of relative calm in the strife-torn west of the country.

No one was immediately available to comment from Sudan's armed forces. International sources, who asked not to be named, said they had heard similar reports.

The insurgent Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said government helicopters and Antonov planes had attacked their fighters across a wide area of north Darfur from around midday on Wednesday until yesterday.

"There is bombing going on right now," said JEM commander Sulaiman Sandal at 2pm local time (1100 GMT) yesterday.

"They have seen JEM forces moving across the area. They think JEM is going to attack them, this is the first for some time."

The reported attacks were around the towns of Kutum, Mallit and Um Sidir. Sudan's president announced an "unconditional" ceasefire in the region less than two months ago.

The joint United Nations/African Union Unamid peacekeeping force said it was looking into reports of clashes between government and rebel forces in the days after the November ceasefire announcement. But the fighting appeared to die down in December.

Apprehensions

JEM's accusation will add to tension mounting ahead of a ruling from the International Criminal Court (ICC) on whether to issue an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al Bashir on charges of orchestrating genocide in Darfur.

A senior foreign office official said on Monday the government had intelligence JEM was planning to attack Sudanese cities and oil fields as soon as the global court's decision was announced.