Sudan Bombs Dafur - UN 'Deeply Disturbed'

Sudan Bombs Dafur; 100 Casualties

The Sudanese air force bombed a town in western Sudan this week killing or wounding 100 people and forcing thousands to flee, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Friday.

An African Union (AU) source said earlier that Sudanese officials had prevented AU monitors from investigating the death and damage caused by the aerial bombing. The attack violated a shaky cease-fire with rebels which AU observers are monitoring.

U.N. spokeswoman Radhia Achouri quoted the AU as saying Sudan's air force had bombed the town of Shangil Tobaya, near el-Fasher, capital of North Darfur, on Wednesday.

"(The African Union) said there are around 100 casualties. They are not talking about a specific death toll," she told Reuters in Cairo by telephone from Khartoum.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was "deeply disturbed" by the attack, his spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

A strongly worded rebuke will follow.