Tension high in Darfur town after deadly attack

Tension high in Darfur town after deadly attack

Khartoum, ex-rebels clinch deal on implementation of peace treaty, UN rights council to examine Darfur.
KHARTOUM - Tension ran high on Tuesday in the Darfur town of El-Fasher, a day after at least two people were killed in an attack by pro-government militia, the former rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) said.
"The situation is very tense due to the presence in and around the town of the Janjaweed but there has been no fresh fighting," SLM official Ahmed Abdallah said.
The African Union mission (AMIS) currently operating in Darfur also described the situation as "very tense".
"AMIS intervened very quickly Monday to put an end to the clashes and its vehicles transported five members of the SLM who were seriously wounded to our hospital," said AMIS spokesman Nourredine Mezni.
"On Tuesday we received information of a possible attack on our headquarters by armed elements who did not sign the peace deal," he said of the pro-government militia.
"We strongly warn against any attacks," he said.
AMIS finds "very regrettable this violation of the ceasefire at a time when the African Union is trying to consolidate the peace deal and to bring in other parties", he said.
The UN has withdrawn staff from Al-Fasher, sources in Darfur said.
SLM leader Minni Minnawi told reporters on Monday that what he described as well-armed men from the pro-government Janjaweed militia attacked the cattle market in El-Fasher.
The largest city in Sudan's troubled western region of Darfur, El-Fasher is also the main base for African Union (AU) observers and has a large population of people displaced by the almost four-year-old conflict.
Minnawi said Monday's attack was a serious breach of the peace deal he signed with Khartoum in May and said it threatened his former rebel movement's participation in the government.
Sudanese authorities played down the latest violence and said it was the result of tensions between local merchants and a group of military intelligence officers who had come to purchase goods from the market.
UN rights council to examine Darfur on December 12
Meanwhile, the UN's top human rights forum will hold a special session on violations in Sudan's strife-torn region of Darfur on December 12, the world body announced on Tuesday.
European and African states in the UN Human Rights Council last week joined forces to call the urgent session next month, but a date for the session had yet to be set.
Their bid was supported by 33 of the 47 nations in the Council, according to a statement from the United Nations. The list of backers also included traditional allies of Khartoum, China and Cuba.
European countries have lodged a draft resolution calling on the Council to set up a mission to probe violations in Darfur.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour last week warned the assembly that "atrocities" in Darfur "continue to be a daily occurrence" and said that Khartoum was responsible for the most serious violations.
The move follows pressure from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who warned that the reputation of the UN's top human rights forum was at stake if it did not act on serious violations.
It will be the fourth special session called by the Council to act on an urgent situation since the body was formed earlier this year.
At least 200,000 people have died from the combined effects of war and famine since the conflict in Darfur erupted in 2003. More than two million have fled their homes and violence is continuing, according to the United Nations.
Khartoum, ex-rebels clinch deal on implementation of peace treaty
Commanders from the Khartoum army and former rebels from eastern Sudan have agreed on a timetable for implementing security and military arrangements envisioned in an October peace deal, officials said Tuesday.
The two sides have been meeting since Friday in the Eritrean town of Tessenei, near the border with Sudan, to discuss the implementation of the accord signed in October to end 12 years of insurgency.
"The high-level joint committee reached (an) agreement on the time schedule and implementation of the final agreement regarding security and military structures," the Eritrean government said in a statement on its website.
The statement did not elaborate on the details of the agreement, but said delegates would meet again in the eastern town of Kassala on December 17 for another round of talks.
Under the October peace deal, both sides are to release prisoners of war and the estimated 1,800 former rebel fighters are to decide whether to return to civilian life or join the Sudanese army or police.
The Eastern Front rebel movement was created last year by the Rashidiya and the region's largest ethnic group, the Beja. It had similar aims to its better-known counterparts in Darfur -- greater autonomy and control of natural resources.
The accord with the eastern rebels is part of efforts to pacify the whole of Sudan, African's largest country, by building on peace pacts the regime in Khartoum has already reached with other rebel groups.
These include a deal last year with insurgents in the mainly Christian south and an accord in May this year with one of the rebel factions in the western region of Darfur.
But there are concerns that militias operating in the south are undermining the peace agreement there and Darfur continues to be plagued by a vicious civil war.