Local official denies government role in attack on Darfur camp

The commissioner of Zalingei Locality, Abdullah Mohamed Al Amin, said the events in Hamidiya Camp on Friday were clashes between supporters of the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) led by Tijani Sese and the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdel Wahid Al Nur. Nine people died or were mortally wounded in the violence in the camp on Friday night. The Commissioner said in an interview aired today on Radio Dabanga that the government was not party to the conflict. According to other unconfirmed reports, the government backed the faction that attacked the camp on Friday, sheltering them in Zalingei town and transporting them to the camp in government vehicles.The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM – not to be confused with LJM mentioned above), which does not appear to be influential in the camp, spoke out to condemn the events. Ahmed Hussein Adam, JEM spokesman, called on the head of the joint African Union-United Nations Mission, Ibrahim Gambari, to resign over the failure to protect displaced people. He also demanded that the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to hold an emergency session of the Security Council to discuss how to protect civilians.