Large clashes reported in north Darfur

KUTUM, Sudan -- Intense fighting has erupted in the northern part of Darfur with hundreds of rebels and Sudanese government troops wounded or captured in clashes this week near the border with Chad, international observers said yesterday.

The Sudanese Air Force is bombing villages in rebel-controlled areas north of the regional capital of El Fasher, the international groups said. The number of civilian casualties is not known, the United Nations mission in Sudan said.

The Sudanese military denied the bombings were continuing.

Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo urged more support for a beleaguered African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur.

``It is not in the interests of Sudan, nor in the interests of Africa, nor indeed in the interests of the world, for us all to stand by and see genocide being developed in Darfur," Obasanjo, the leader of Africa's most-populous nation, told diplomats, UN and AU officials during a visit to Ethiopia.

The UN says at least 18,000 people have fled fighting in north Darfur in the past month alone, streaming into refugee camps in El Fasher.

That has worsened a refugee problem that already had seen 2.5 million people displaced from their homes in the last three years. More than 200,000 people are believed to have been killed.

Sudan has long accused Chad of supporting the Darfur rebels, and Chad has in turn accused Khartoum of backing a rebellion in eastern Chad. Both countries reopened their borders in August, and resumed diplomatic relations that they had severed in April, but analysts warn the ongoing war in Darfur threatens to destabilize the region.

The UN refugee agency said yesterday it was hoping to move 40,000 Darfur refugees living in Chad away from camps close to the Sudanese border because of nearby gunfire and bombardment.

``The ongoing deterioration of the security situation in Darfur and increasing insecurity throughout eastern Chad highlights the urgent need to move Sudanese refugees," Jennifer Pagonis, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in Geneva.

The latest violence, which began Saturday, pits Sudanese government forces against a relatively new group of Darfur rebels known as the National Redemption Front.

The coalition loosely regroups various rebel factions who oppose a peace agreement signed in May between the government and the main rebel group.

The UN says the government offensive and rebel attacks violate the agreement. But Sudan's government opposes a plan to replace the AU peacekeeping force with a 20,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission.

The latest fighting began Saturday near Bahia, along the porous border between Sudan and Chad.

The rebels said in a statement that they were attacked by a force of Sudanese Army and a pro-government militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed, accused of some of the worst atrocities against ethnic African villagers in fighting that began in 2003.

The rebels, who said they had won the clashes, said government forces attacked with 2,000 fighters on camels, horses, and more than 100 armored vehicles.

The Sudanese military confirmed the clashes in north Darfur but would not say how many of its forces were killed or wounded.