CAIRO: Egyptian authorities have expelled several Cairo-based leaders of a Darfur rebel group that carried out an unprecedented attack on the Sudanese capital, a security official said on Wednesday.
The men were detained (on Tuesday) and then expelled from the country, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Sudanese authorities were angry at comments one member made on a satellite television channel, and they spoke to the Egyptians about it, he said without providing further details.
On Saturday, Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebels attacked Omdurman, one of three adjacent cities that make up greater Khartoum, marking the first time that decades of regional conflict have been brought so close to the seat of power.
The English-language Sudan Tribune reported that three JEM members had been expelled from Egypt -Ahmed Tugd, Ahmed Sharif and Mohammed Ali.
The paper said the move came after Tugd told the the Qatar-based news channel Al-Jazeera that JEM controlled large parts of the capital.
The army said more than 222 people were killed in three days as troops countered the JEM advance. They included nearly 100 troops and 34 civilians.
The Islamist-inspired JEM retains the most powerful military force of the rebel groups fighting pro-government forces in the western Sudanese region of Darfur even though it has suffered several breakaways since the uprising began in 2003. – AFP
