A senior U.N. official in North Darfur said international observers were receiving daily reports of raids and casualties throughout this vast semidesert pastureland north of the state capital of El Fasher.Children dragged from their mothers and murdered.
"The campaign is ongoing, and we are being given very limited access to investigate or treat casualties," the official said by phone from North Darfur. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur said in a statement Saturday it had received reports that the Sudanese air force twice bombed Birmaza last week. The attacks took a "heavy toll on the civilian population," the A.U. said.
The Sudanese military was not immediately available for comment Sunday. Last week, however, the army denied it was conducting an offensive in North Darfur.
As many as 450,000 people have been killed by disease and violence and 2.5 million displaced since fighting began three years ago, when rebels stemming from ethnic African tribes rose up against the Arab-led central government.
The Washington Post article does have a few of its facts wrong. The Darfur genocide - and it is a genocide, together with ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity - began as the janjaweed, the Arab militias, began their terror campaign against the residents of Darfur by forcibly displacing them from their land. The conflict intensifed in 2003 when local militias began fighting back against Khartoum's policies.
Meanwhile, leave it Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi to call the insertion of UN peacekeepers into Darfur a "return to colonialism" and that the Sudanese military would be better suited to stop the conflict. Earth to Moammar - the Sudanese military is involved in the conflict; they're the ones involved in the ethnic cleansing and genocidal activities. One of the rebel leaders in Darfur has continued to call for international peacekeepers to get involved in stopping the violence. He's also claimed to have destroyed Sudanese government vehicles involved in attacks in Darfur:
Ahmed Abdelshabi Yagoub, leader of one of three wings of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), said Sunday fighting was ongoing and had been raging for days in northern and eastern Darfur.
"As we are speaking now, there is fighting around Jabel Mara and other areas," he told AFP in an interview in Nairobi, where he was en route to Darfur from the Eritrean capital Asmara.
Yagoub said that fierce clashes Saturday in the Sani-Aye area, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of Melliti town in north Darfur, had claimed dozens of fighters from both sides.
"In fighting yesterday, we lost seven fighters who were killed by an helicopter gunship, but we killed dozens of government troops who were backed by Janjaweed," he said, referring to Darfur`s Arab militia.
In addition, the rebel chief said his fighters had destroyed several government vehicles and captured others in hours of battles in sweltering heat.
Technorati: darfur, dafur, UN, sudan, chad, somalia, ethiopia, eritrea, african union, janjaweed, and Kofi Annan
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