Dozens dead after Darfur attack

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Armed men attacked villages in a rebel-held area of Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region on Thursday and Friday, leaving dozens dead, the rebels said.

Officials from aid organisations in the area said they had received unconfirmed reports of an attack in the remote territory west of the town of Tawila in North Darfur state on Thursday afternoon.

Rebels accused Sudan's army of launching the attack. No one from the armed forces was immediately available for comment on Friday, a public holiday.

Peace talks to end Darfur's festering seven-year conflict have foundered since two of the main rebel groups boycotted the proceedings and there have been continuing reports of skirmishes between rebel factions, government troops and rival tribes.

"From yesterday (Thursday) at 2 pm the government attacked the area around Tabarat, Maral and Hashaba with troops in Land Cruisers and air forces and bombing carried on up to this morning," said Ibrahim al-Helwu, from the arm of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) loyal to Abdel Wahed al-Nur.

"Fifty-four people were killed and 172 people were injured, most of them civilians ... This area is under our control," he added.

It was not possible to confirm the casualty figures independently.

Al-Helwu said some bombs had hit a market serving more than 40 villages in the area and a small number of SLA fighters had also died in the attack.

Sources from the aid organisations, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters they had received reports of an attack north-east of the largely rebel-held, mountainous Eastern Jabel Mara region.

"We heard the village of Tabarat was attacked. But nobody knows why. Nobody knows by whom," said one aid official.

Violence surged in 2003 when the SLA and other rebels took up arms against Sudan's government, accusing it of neglecting the development of the region.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's president Omar Hassan al-Bashir over charges he ordered war crimes during the government's campaign to crush the rebellion.

Sudan refuses to recognise the court and has accused Western media and activists of exaggerating the conflict.

- Reuters