Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Khartoum (Agenzia Fides) – The rebels of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) have threatened to respond with a bloodbath if government troops attack their posts in southern Darfur. The JEM is one of the main guerrilla movements of Darfur, the western region of Sudan that since 2003 has been experiencing a bloody civil war.
Since last week, the JEM has controlled the town of Muhagerya, in southern Sudan and from there have expelled the troops of Minni Minnawi, a leader of another rebel movement that is united to the government in Khartoum. Minnawi recently accused the JEM of having sold itself to the foreign nations.
Amidst the fighting in taking control of Muhagerya, hundreds of civilians have been forced to flee. A JEM spokesman has affirmed that the government forces and Minnawi's men are preparing to retake the city by force, attacking it on four sides. The JEM says that if they launch an attack of this kind, there will be widespread killing, as it is their right to remain in Muhagerya, a city that had been under their control until 2005. The JEM's men, their spokesman claims, received a joyful welcome from the local people, who had suffered under the taxes imposed by Minnawi's men.
In Nyala, the capital of southern Darfur, the governor confirmed the declarations of the rebels on an attack on Muhagerya (which is at 80km from Nyala), affirming that the Sudanese armed forces are preparing to retake the city.
According to the UN-African Union peacekeeping forces (UNAMID) in Darfur, the re-opening of the struggle for control of the town in dispute could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe, leading 30,000 civilians to have to flee their homes.
UNAMID awaits the arrival, in March, of another hundred men to reinforce their own contingent. The troops will be sent from Egypt, South Africa, Senegal, and Bangladesh, and over the course of this year, more troops are expected to arrive from Nepal, Nigeria, Egypt, and Ethiopia. Tanzania has announced that it too will send an entire squadron with a total of about 900 men.
The hybrid force was established by the UN Security Council in order to protect the civilians of Darfur, where it is estimated that since 2003, 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million forced to flee their homes.
At the beginning of this week, in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia and headquarters of the African Union, the UN, the African Union, and the government of Sudan met to discuss ways of accelerating the deployment of the UNAMID contingent in order to reach 260,000 soldiers and policemen, as planned by the Security Council. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 22/1/2009)
