CAIRO — A fresh Sudanese offensive by government soldiers and Arab militiamen against Darfur rebels has trapped thousands of refugees along the Chadian border, the rebels and humanitarian workers said Wednesday.
Local rebel commander Abbas Mohamed said a dozen civilians were killed and 20 arrested during the latest government attack, which targeted the Jebel Moon area of West Darfur on Tuesday. The Sudanese military said eight soldiers were killed and 15 injured in Tuesday’s fighting.
At least 8,000 refugees have been trapped in the area by the fighting, unable to flee into Chad, Orla Clinton, a U.N. spokeswoman in Sudan, told The Associated Press. She said the situation remains unclear because humanitarian workers have had to evacuate the zone.
Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq said he didn’t have any details about stranded refugees.
“I’m sure the number is an exaggeration” he told AP from Khartoum.
More than 200,000 have died in Sudan’s Darfur region and 2.5 million have fled to refugee camps — including more than 250,000 to neighboring Chad — since 2003, when local ethnic African rebels took arms against the Arab-dominated central government, accusing it of discrimination.
Sudan denies backing the janjaweed militia of Arab nomads accused of the worst atrocities in the conflict.
