Sudan said it ordered the military to stop fighting in the bloodied Darfur region even as rebels alleged new attacks and said they would uphold a boycott of stalemated peace talks.
"Orders were given last night to all the commanders to stop fighting," Sudan government delegation spokesman Ibrahim Mohammed Ibrahim said on Thursday by phone from the African Union-hosted conference in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.
PHOTO: AFP
Ibrahim said he wasn't sure if fighting had actually stopped in Darfur, where tens of thousands of people have died and nearly 2 million left homeless in a two-year crisis the UN has branded the world's gravest.
Rebels boycotted the latest round of talks on Monday over allegations of a new offensive against them, saying they would not talk with government mediators until the attacks stopped.
The insurgents said attacks continued on Thursday, citing field reports from the vast western Darfur region.
Bahar Ibrahim, spokesman for the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army, said government troops attacked the town of Tawila and several villages in northern Darfur.
"The government as of this morning is continuing its attacks," he said.
"Nothing has changed in the situation to make us return to the talks," said Ahmed Tugod Lissan of Sudan's other main rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement.
On Wednesday, the top government negotiator, Majzoub al-Khalifa Ahmad, said Sudan had accepted a proposal by African Union medi-ators to stop fighting if rebels withdrew from positions captured since the signing of an April cease-fire deal.
Delegates from the two rebel movements said they had received no formal notification of any such AU proposal and couldn't comment on it.
There is no official reckoning of the overall toll of the war, which was sparked in February last year when two non-Arab African rebel groups took up arms to fight for more power and resources from the Arab-dominated Khartoum government.
The Sudanese government responded by backing an Arab militia known as the Janjaweed, which is accused of targeting civilians in a campaign of murder, rape and arson.
Disease and hunger have killed 70,000 people in the western Darfur region since March, the World Health Organization says. Nearly 2 million are believed to have fled their homes since Darfur fell into crisis.
The US has accused Sudan's government of failing to take sufficient steps to rein in the Janjaweed, who are alleged to have committed genocide in Darfur.
A promised 3,000-member AU peace deployment for Darfur has so far managed to put some 800 soldiers and 100 observers in the field.
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability