‘Chadian army intrudes Darfur’ -rebels

A joint statement, issued on Thursday and signed by two Darfur rebel groups, accuses the Chadian army of intruding Sudan’s western region of Darfur. The statement, signed by Gibril Adam Bilal from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Abdullah Mursal from the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minawi (SLM-MM), said that a division of the Chadian army, of approximately 200 armed vehicles, reached up to 150 kilometers inside Darfur.It also said that the Chadian support to the regime in Khartoum has prolonged the war which has killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Both groups demand Chadian troops to withdraw from Sudanese territory immediately and stress that the people of Darfur are now ‘increasingly aware of Chad’s destructive role in the conflict’.About a month ago, the rebel group claimed it had clashed with the Chadian army in the area of Umm Dukhun in South Darfur. According to the rebels, the attack was a response to a Chadian attack on a JEM camp in the same area and added that more than a dozen Chadian soldiers were killed in the battle. Chad did not yet respond to the allegations.Photo: Convoy of JEM rebels (Radio Dabanga file)