KHARTOUM: Darfur rebels raided a village in North Darfur killing seven people at the weekend, the Sudanese army said, as UN peacekeepers confirmed deadly clashes between gunmen and government troops.
Darfur is one of several regions in Sudan that have witnessed deadly fighting in the run-up to southern independence in July, with clashes raging for weeks in the ethnically divided border state of South Kordofan between government forces and southern-aligned northern militia.
"The attack launched by the forces of Minni Arko (Minnawi) in the Shangil Tobaya area and carried out with 26 armed Land Cruisers and a number of camels and horses resulted in the killing of seven civilians from the village," army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad said in a statement late on Sunday.
Another 42 people were injured and 90 houses burned in the raid, which took place late on Friday, he added.
A senior member of the Sudan Liberation Army faction led by Minni Minnawi confirmed clashes broke out in North Darfur at the weekend but denied his group was involved.
"The government militia attacked a village two weeks ago and 20 people were killed, so the citizens retaliated. As a movement we had no connection," the rebel leader’s brother Hussein Minnawi told AFP by phone.
He had no information on casualties.
The UN-African Union peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) confirmed heavy fighting in Shangil Tobaya on Saturday, and said it had evacuated 15 injured people to hospitals in El-Fasher as requested by the authorities.
"As far as we know, these were clashes between unknown armed men and the Sudanese Armed Forces that resulted in casualties, including civilian casualties. But we are still trying to verify the details," said a UNAMID source, requesting anonymity.
Darfur has witnessed a significant decline in violence in recent years, since non-Arab rebels first rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime in 2003.
But in December, Minnawi took up arms against the government for failing to implement a 2006 peace accord he signed with them in Abuja, and his forces have since fought alongside the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the SLA faction of Abdelwahid Nur in periodic heavy fighting with the army.
The latest peace talks, in Doha, have made little headway despite strenuous efforts by the Qataris, with key rebel groups refusing to participate and the government unwilling to make major concessions.
At least 300,000 people have been killed and 1.8 million people forced to flee their homes during the eight-year conflict in Darfur, the United Nations says. The government puts the death toll at 10,000.
