Sudan: 32 govt troops and 20 rebels die in Darfur fighting
At least 32 government soldiers and 20 rebels were killed in a foiled rebel attempt to capture an airport in Sudan's western regional capital, the government-owned al-Anbaa newspaper reported here Saturday. Last Friday's fighting between the military and the recently emerged rebel movement in the Darfur region destroyed several planes and inflicted heavy damage at the airport in al-Fashir, the paper cited senior officials as saying.
Sudan: 32 govt troops and 20 rebels die in Darfur fighting
Panapress (PANA), 26. April 2003
Khartoum - At least 32 government soldiers and 20 rebels were killed in a foiled rebel attempt to capture an airport in Sudan's western regional capital, the government-owned
al-Anbaa newspaper reported here Saturday.
Friday's fighting between the military and the recently emerged rebel movement in the Darfur region destroyed several planes and inflicted heavy damage at the airport in al-Fashir, the paper cited senior officials as saying.
"The attackers seized the residential area near the airport and with the support of fifth columnists, attacked the airport...firing indiscriminately at fuel depots and four planes," which were destroyed," it quoted armed forces spokesman Mohamed Bashir Suleiman as saying.
"The town of al-Fashir is now secure and life is beginning to return to normal in the town after the armed forces managed to contain the situation," he said without mentioning whether there were civilian casualties.
Al-Fashir, the largest town in the Darfur region, is some 800km south-west of Khartoum and is the capital of Northern Darfur state.
Darfur's Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), which has been fighting government forces in the remote region that borders Chad since early February, said on Friday that it had captured al-Fashir.
But the government promptly denied the claim.
The movement accuses Khartoum of excluding Darfur, one of the most arid regions in Africa's largest country, from development and state power.
It most recently called for the overthrow of the "Islamic regime in Khartoum and its replacement with a democratic government."
The Darfur rebels have no apparent links with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), a southern rebel group which has been fighting for greater autonomy for the
south from successive Islamist governments in the north since 1983.
Meanwhile, the governor of South Darfur State has imposed a night-time curfew on the state's capital, Nyala following the bloody attack on al-Fasher, capital of the twin North Darfur state.
Governor Adam Hamid Mussa ordered a curfew from 10:00pm to 7:00 am.