Sudan Fights On as Truce Deadline Passes

Sudan’s government kept up attacks on rebels in the western region of Darfur on Saturday, defying a deadline set by African Union mediators for an end to active hostilities, AU officials said.

The mediators at peace talks being held in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, gave Sudan and rebel representatives an ultimatum Friday to stop fighting by 6 p.m. Saturday or face possible referral to the U.N. Security Council.

AU officials said the government was continuing attacks.

AU spokesman Assane Ba told reporters that government helicopters were attacking the town of Labado. But Sudan’s government said it was responding to an insurgent offensive.

“What the government is doing in these areas is actually within its sovereign rights,” Najib Abdulwahab, Sudan’s minister of state for foreign affairs, said in a statement issued by the Sudanese Embassy in Nigeria.

Sudan said its operations were aimed at clearing roads to allow access for humanitarian aid.

A statement by the Sudanese government delegation in Abuja added that Khartoum later halted its military operations and had begun withdrawing troops to their former positions. The claim could not immediately be verified.

Ba said AU mediators would ask Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, current head of the 52-nation African Union, to personally intervene in the current round of peace talks.

Rebels boycotted the talks Monday, saying they would not meet with government mediators on Darfur, where tens of thousands have died and about 2 million have fled their homes in nearly two years.

Earlier Saturday, Ba said Sudanese troops were pulling back from some positions in Darfur. But later, he said attacks were continuing, citing top AU cease-fire monitor Nigerian Brig. Gen. Festus Okonkwo.

Rebel delegates could not immediately be reached for comment.