KHARTOUM: Sudanese rebels have seized an army compound in the Darfur region, the insurgents said yesterday, as the Red Cross reported the release of three soldiers captured by rebels.
The pre-dawn attack came on Friday about five kilometres northeast of Kebkabiya in North Darfur state, said Ibrahim Al Hillu, spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Army’s (SLA’s) Abdelwahid Nur faction. “We captured the compound and all the equipment inside, with five on our side wounded,” he said from his base in France. Hillu added that the rebels then repulsed a government counter-attack and are now “counting their bodies”.
Sudan’s army spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Kebkabiya is about 150km west of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state where violence has surged. Separately, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it assisted in the transfer on Saturday of three armed forces members freed by the SLA’s Minni Minnawi faction.
“The released soldiers, two of whom needed medical care, were handed over to the Sudanese authorities in North Darfur,” an ICRC news release said.
“The SLA-MM and the Sudanese authorities asked us to assist in the transfer of the soldiers in our capacity as a neutral intermediary,” Jean-Christophe Sandoz, head of the ICRC in Sudan, said in the statement.
AFP
