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Aid agencies flee Darfur camp as fighting erupts

Jonathan Steele

The clash seems to be the worst single incident since the peace deal was signed.

A FIERCE clash between African groups in south Darfur has left up to 40 people dead and prompted foreign aid workers to abandon Greida, one of the world's largest camps for displaced people.

Fighters loyal to the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which refused to sign a peace deal in May, used mortars and machine guns to attack a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) which had accepted the deal.

"Exchanges of fire lasted for three to four hours. It was only a mile from the town," an official from one of several aid agencies which withdrew from Greida to Nyala, the regional capital, said.

The fighting appears to be the worst single incident in Darfur since the peace deal was signed in May. An African Union source confirmed the figure of around 40 deaths, but described it as a "preliminary estimate."

An SLA spokesman accused the Government of being behind the attack, suggesting that relations are becoming frayed. Minni Minnawi, of the SLA faction, was recently appointed as special assistant to Sudan's President, but there have been other hints of tension recently. The Government denied the charge while Greida locals insisted that the JEM was behind the attacks. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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