April 21, 2004
Sudan Clashes Force Thousands From Home
Associated Press

At least 50,000 people have fled their homes in recent weeks because of militia attacks and fighting between Sudanese government and rebel forces in southern Sudan, the United Nations said Sunday.

By ANDREW ENGLAND, Associated Press Writer

NAIROBI, Kenya - At least 50,000 people have fled their homes in recent weeks because of militia attacks and fighting between Sudanese government and rebel forces in southern Sudan, the United Nations (news - web sites) said Sunday.

The clashes between the government forces and the Sudan People's Liberation Army rebels occurred despite a cease fire between the warring parties, which are involved in talks to end the country's 21-year civil war.

The cease-fire, signed in October 2002, is supposed to remain in force as long as talks continue. But there were no immediate indications that the fighting would derail the negotiations.

Since early March, the United Nations has received reports of villages, schools and health clinics being destroyed and looted, as well as incidents of rape in Shilluk Kingdom in the northern Upper Nile region, the office of the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan said in a statement.

Most of the attacks have been carried out by militia that oppose the rebels, said Ben Parker, a U.N. spokesman.

"The most serious fighting that has effected civilians has been from militia targeting civilian settlements," he said in a telephone interview from Sudan. "Fighting between government troops and rebels is a much smaller element in the conflict, as far as we know."

U.N. agencies and aid groups have been forced to suspend operations in the area because of the violence, the U.N. said.

Rebel spokesman Yasir Arman said the militia carrying out the attacks are supported by the government, which is trying to force rebel supporters from the region.

Ad'Dirdeiry M. Hamed, Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya, said no government troops were involved in the fighting.

He said the clashes pitted rival groups of a southern faction against each other. The southern faction was tied to the government until its leader defected to the rebels late last year, splitting the faction into pro-government and pro-rebel groups.

"We are entitled to support" our ally, he said. "But we haven't given them any support over the previous few months."

Sudan's civil war erupted in 1983 when rebels from the mainly animist and Christian south took up arms against the predominantly Muslim and Arab north.

More than 2 million people have perished, mainly through war-induced famine in Africa's longest-running conflict. But the fighting has dropped off sharply since the start of peace talks in July 2002.

The talks, which are taking place in Kenya, are in their final stage. But negotiators are deadlocked over a few issues, like whether Khartoum, the capital, should be governed under Islamic law.

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