Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Fighting in Sudan's Darfur kills more than 500 - lawmaker

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Fighting over control of a gold mine in Sudan's Darfur region has killed more than 500 people and destroyed 68 villages since January, a Sudanese lawmaker said on Monday, sharply increasing estimates of the casualties from the violence.

Law and order has collapsed across the arid western region since mainly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the Arab-led government in Khartoum in 2003, accusing it of neglecting Darfur.

General view of the town of Labado in south Darfur May 28, 2005 after was abandoned by its 60,000 inhabitants when it was attacked in December 2004. REUTERS/Evan Schneider/U.N. Photo

Arab tribes in the region, many of whom were armed by the government to help quell the Darfur insurgency, turned their guns on each other in January in battles for control of a gold mine and other resources.

The United Nations earlier said the clashes between the Bani Hussein and Rizeigat tribes in Jebel Amer in North Darfur had displaced 100,000 people and killed more than 100.

On Monday, Adam Sheikha, a lawmaker for the El Sireaf area that includes the mine, told reporters 510 people had been killed and 865 wounded since the outbreak of violence - the first estimates covering the whole of the recent fighting to come from a member of Sudan's ruling National Congress Party.

"Fifteen women were raped, 68 villages were completely and 120 others partially burned down" and around 20,000 displaced families urgently needed food, added Sheikha.

He said the attackers on El Sireaf had used government-issued weapons and some of them had been on government salaries.

Human rights groups and the United Nations estimate hundreds of thousands of people have died in the Darfur conflict. The government says around 10,000 people were killed.

Violence ebbed from the peak of the revolt in 2004 but has picked up again in recent months.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and some aides to face charges of masterminding war crimes in Darfur. They deny the charges and refuse to recognise the court.

Events in Darfur are hard to verify as Sudan restricts travel by journalists, aid workers and diplomats. In January, authorities denied Reuters a travel permit to attend a government-sponsored disarmament conference in West Darfur.

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Fighting in Sudan's Darfur kills more than 500 - lawmaker