Sudan’s Army Says It Has Driven Rebels From New Darfur Base

07/13/10 | Bloomberg

Sudan’s army drove fighters from the Justice and Equality Movement from a base in the western region of Darfur yesterday, army spokesman Al Sawarmi Khaled said. The rebel movement denied the claims.

Security forces attacked the Adoula area between North and South Darfur states after JEM started to use it as a new base, Khaled said by phone from Khartoum, the capital. The army had captured JEM’s previous stronghold, Jebel Moon, on May 14.

“The armed forces conducted an operation to end the presence of the Justice and Equality Movement in the area,” Khaled said. “The armed forces will continue chasing them away wherever they are.”

Peace talks between the two sides collapsed after Sudan’s President Umar Al-Bashir and his party won presidential and national elections in April. The conflict in Darfur has claimed about 300,000 lives, mainly due to illness and starvation, and forced more than 2 million people to flee their homes, according to United Nations estimates.

El Tahir El Feki, chairman of JEM’s legislative council, denied any clashes had taken place yesterday, saying that the rebel movement had already left the area after firefights with the army between June 3 and June 18.

“This is propaganda to lift the army’s spirit after we defeated them in more than one location,” he said today by phone from London.

Khaled said there were no details on casualties from the fighting, which lasted about one hour in the Awateel area. JEM rebels moved to the north toward the Libyan-Sudanese border after the clashes, he said.

Violence in Darfur escalated in 2003 when mostly African rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum, accusing it of marginalizing the region. The government has put the violence-related death toll at 10,000.