Amazing how these Islamic regimes crumble
excerpt independent.co.uk
Darfur rebels poised to take Khartoum
Change font size: A | A | ABy Steve Bloomfield
Sunday, 11 May 2008
The vicious conflict in Darfur suddenly came to the Sudanese capital,
Khartoum, yesterday, with fighting reported in the western suburbs of
the city.
A Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), claimed
it had already taken the town of Omdurman, on the western bank of the
Nile opposite Khartoum, and appeared to be moving to seize the
capital. The daring attack – the first by Darfur rebels so close to
Khartoum – shook the government of President Omar al-Bashir, which has
been held responsible for a scorched-earth policy and the loss of over
200,000 lives in the west of the country.
In recent days there has been heavy fighting in Kordofan province,
which stretches from Darfur to the Nile, and on Thursday, when clashes
came closer to the capital, some roads and rover bridges were closed.
Last night Sudanese television claimed the rebels had been “completely
repulsed”, and government sources denied the rebels were inside the
capital. But the authorities imposed a curfew on Khartoum, and
witnesses reported seeing army vehicles and helicopters heading to the
west of the city, where heavy gunfire and artillery was heard
throughout the night.
JEM’s website was last night quoting one of its field commanders, who
claimed his men were in “full control” of Omdurman and were heading to
Khartoum. The website also claimed that the group had taken control of
the airport at the Wadi Sayedna military base, 10 miles north of
Khartoum, and three bridges leading into the capital. There was no
independent verification of the claims.
Khartoum’s main airport was closed and taken over by the Sudanese
military. Witnesses told Reuters news agency that three Egyptian
fighter planes and one Egyptian army cargo plane arrived at the
airport yesterday evening. Egypt has been a staunch ally of President
Omar al-Bashir throughout the Darfur conflict.
Meanwhile, fresh fighting was reported on the Chad/Sudan border. JEM,
like many of Darfur’s rebel groups, is believed to receive support and
funding from the Chadian government. Sudan claimed the Chadian
military attack was “direct support” for JEM’s “sabotage attempt”.
JEM first came to prominence outside Sudan in February 2003 when,
alongside another rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), it
began a rebellion against the Sudanese government. Sudanese forces,
backed up by militia groups known as the Janjaweed, launched a
devastating counter-insurgency.
In the five years since, around 2.5 million people have been forced
from their homes and an estimated 200,000 have died, mainly from
war-related diseases. The United Nations has established the world’s
largest humanitarian aid programme, but attempts to end the conflict
through peace conferences and the deployment of peacekeepers has
failed. The two original rebel groups have since splintered into
anywhere between a dozen and two dozen factions, but in recent months
JEM has become the strongest military force among them.
While Sudan has been ravaged by a succession of civil wars for more
than two decade,s Khartoum itself has rarely been threatened. In
recent years parts of the city have enjoyed the fruits of the
country’s oil boom, with new buildings going up every month. The West,
particularly the United States, has shunned Sudan, but Gulf states,
Malaysia and China have poured money in
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