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darfur-rebels.html
NEWS AFRICA
Sudan army battles Darfur rebels
"We have liberated Jebel Moon from the Justice and Equality Movement," Al-
Sawarmi Khaled, an army spokesman, said on Saturday.
"We have detained 61 rebels and confiscated 16 cars and three large trucks."
But talks soon reached a stalemate and a deadline set for completing the
peace deal passed on March 15 without agreement.
The latest fighting came after police said 27 police officers and 30 rebels
had been killed on Thursday when Jem attacked a convoy in South Darfur.
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According to police, Jem fighters "attacked a convoy carrying food destined
for the citizens of Darfur but the attack was thwarted by central police
forces who were protecting the convoy".
"It is completely false. Our forces were defending themselves from attack by
the army which has intensified its operations since the end of elections" in
Sudan on April 15, Ahmed Hussein Adam, a Jem spokesman, told the AFP
news agency.
The latest violence seems to have dealt a further blow to the already shaky
peace talks between Jem and the government in Khartoum.
On Friday, Jem denied a UN mediator's claim that the group would resume
the Qatari-brokered peace talks.
Adam said the group was actually leaning towards quitting the negotiations
altogether.
"We are still suspending our participation in the negotiations, and we are
closer to withdrawing from the negotiations in Qatar," he told the AFP news
agency.
"We are in a true state of war after the government reneged on the
ceasefire agreement."
'Ceasefire violated'
Jem has accused Sudan's military of attacking its positions last month,
saying Khartoum was trying to impose a "military solution" to the conflict,
which the United Nations estimates has killed 300,000 people.
Khartoum, which says 10,000 people have died since the rebels took up arms
in 2003, denied that the offensive took place.
"If Jem wants to go back to war, the Sudanese army and police are all
prepared and on alert to stop any offensive."
Ismail al-Haj Musa, NCP official
Ismail al-Haj Musa, a leading member of the Sudan's ruling National Congress
Party, told Al Jazeera that claims that the government violated the
ceasefire agreement were "absolutely untrue".
"We always hear such false allegations from Jem to justify its return to
square one of war once again," he said.
"One can ask the UN and African Union observers on the ground to make
sure who has first violated ceasefire. They will say that Jem has.
"If Jem wants to go back to war, the Sudanese army and police are all
prepared and on alert to stop any offensive."
In another sign that peace efforts were deteriorating, Khartoum last week
sought Interpol's helpin arresting Khalil Ibrahim, the Jem leader, over a 2008
attack near Khartoum that killed 220 people.
Army build-up
Unamid, a joint peacekeeping mission by the UN and the African Union, has
said it has reports that Sudanese army and Jem fighters have been massing
in North Darfur state's Shangil Tobay area.
Al-Tahir al-Feki, a Jem official, confirmed the group had troops around
Shangil Tobay and South Kordofan but said they were on "administrative"
missions, holding talks with local leaders.
Sudan's army earlier this month accused Jem of attacking villages in West
and North Darfur states to expand its territory.
Jem was one of two rebel forces that launched a revolt against Sudan's
government in 2003, accusing it of starving Darfur of funding and
marginalising its population.
The desert region, which is the size of France, has been gripped by a civil
war since then and about 2.7 million have been displaced, according to the
UN.