EAST AFRICA:Sudanese forces surrounded and attacked Darfur's most volatile camp yesterday, allegedly to flush out rebels they say are behind recent attacks on police.
Meanwhile, the UN human rights office accused allied government militias of an earlier attack on the village of Deribat in the central Darfur Jabel Mara region, accusing them of mass rape and abductions which could constitute war crimes. The UN called on Khartoum to investigate reports about 50 women being forced into "sexual slavery" after an attack on the rebel-held town of Deribat last December.
Eyewitness accounts of the attacks were carried in The Irish Timesin June, written by the paper's East Africa correspondent, Rob Crilly.
The area is seen as supporting the Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Army founder and chairman Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur, who rejects a May 2006 Darfur peace deal signed by only one of three negotiating rebel factions.
The UN report said a "pattern of mass abduction" which began with the Darfur conflict, appeared to be ongoing. The report covered a six-month period ending in May 2007. The move yesterday on Kalma camp, home to 90,000, follows two other attacks in the past week on police posts in south Darfur, one near Kalma. One policeman was killed and eight injured.
"At 6am, the government of Sudan moved 2,000 soldiers to surround the camp - army, police and border intelligence," said Abu Sharrad, a spokesman for Kalma camp. He said government forces had opened fire but it was unclear if anyone was killed or injured.
"We still cannot tell. They are still surrounding the camp."
Kalma camp is one of Darfur's most volatile. Government offices were torched and officials expelled from the camp in 2005.
Last year, frustrated camp residents rioted, looting an African Union (AU) police base in the camps and hacking to death their Sudanese translator.
The 7,000-strong AU force in Darfur has failed to stem the violence despite a 2006 peace deal.
While large-scale fighting has largely ended, rebels and militias have fractured, creating lawlessness and uncontrolled banditry.
International experts estimate that 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003. Khartoum agreed to a 26,000-strong joint UN-AU force which will absorb the AU mission and try to stop violence which has hampered the world's largest aid operation. Some 500,000 people are out of reach of relief workers.