Up to 40 people were killed in clashes between rebel groups in south Darfur, forcing foreign aid workers to abandon the Greida displaced persons' camp, the Guardian newspaper reported on its Web site on Monday. An African Union spokesman in Khartoum confirmed a flare-up in fighting in Greida, but put the death toll at 11 people, mostly civilians. Fighters loyal to the Justice and Equality Movement, one of two rebel factions that did not sign a May peace agreement, used mortars and heavy machines to attack men from a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), which signed the deal, the report said. The report said the fighting appears to be the worst since the peace deal was signed in May.
"Exchanges of fire lasted for three to four hours. It was only a mile from the town. It happened on Friday," the Guardian quoted an official from one of several aid agencies which withdrew from Greida to Nyala, the regional capital, at the weekend.