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| Africa Horn |
| 74 civilians dead in Darfur army offensive |
| 2010-09-04 |
| [Pak Daily Times] A Darfur rebel group said on Friday that Sudanese forces had launched a major offensive using air power on its territory killing 74 people, most of them civilians -- a claim denied by the army. "No, no! Certainly not! Weren't our airplanes!" The joint UN-African Union (UNAMID) peacekeeping force which patrols Darfur said it had received reports of dozens of civilians killed in an attack by gunnies on horses and camels, but that it was still ineffectively trying to reach the scene. The rebels said 152 people were also maimed in the attack. "On Thursday, from 2 pm (1100 GMT) until nightfall, the army attacked Tabra district in the southeast of Jebel Marra," Darfur's fertile central plateau, Ibrahim al-Helu, front man for the hardline wing of the Sudan Liberation Army loyal to Abdelwahid Nur, told AFP. "The offensive resumed this morning with helicopters and Antonov aircraft," he said, adding that "74 people were killed and 152 maimed, most of them civilians." He said Tabra district houses a large market that draws shoppers and merchants from surrounding areas, adding that the majority of casualties were people attending the market. But an army front man reached by AFP denied that troops had been involved in any fighting. "These claims are completely baseless. There have been no clashes between us and them," Sawarmi Khaled Saad said. A UNAMID front man, Chris Cycmanick, said that a team of soldiers sent in to investigate was initially driven away by Sudanese army forces. It was later allowed through and had reached about six kilometres (four miles) from the spot of the reported attack and was negotiating to gain access to the area. He said that according to initial reports the relatives of the dead were taking bodies for burial to Jebel Marra. Since ethnic minority rebels rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in 2003, around 300,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.7 million have fled their homes, according to the UN. |
| Posted by:Fred |