Aid workers flee Darfur violence

KHARTOUM, Sudan – Fighting near a village in Sudan’s crisis-plagued Darfur region killed at least 17 people Monday, while helicopters rescued dozens of workers who fled into the bush to escape.

State Minister Ahmed Haroon said rebels attacked the strategic North Darfur town of Tawilla early Monday, killing 17 people and destroying the town’s hospital. He said an unknown number of people were injured. A statement by an aid organization said government planes also dropped bombs on the town.

But Haroon denied that the government had violated a cease-fire between rebels and the government.

“These areas are under our control. Those who talk of violations are making unsubstantiated accusations,” he said.

During the clashes between rebels and Arab militiamen in Tawilla, African Union peacekeepers airlifted 45 people who had spent several hours hiding in the bush outside the town of Tawilla during clashes between rebels and Arab militiamen, U.N. spokesman George Somerwill told The Associated Press.

Kate Haiff, Sudan director for Save the Children, UK, said more than 30 Sudanese workers for her organization and some other people were airlifted to the North Darfur capital of El Fasher.

Somerwill, speaking by telephone to AP in Cairo, said no humanitarian aid is reaching thousands of people displaced by violence in Tawilla.

A tribal dispute over livestock sparked the clashes, which began Sunday and led to rebel Sudan Liberation Army forces attacking the government-allied Arab militia known as the Janjaweed, Somerwill said.

Tawilla is a strategic location which the government uses to supply forces based in western Sudan, near the Chad border, and areas in Darfur’s northwest. It is also home to about 30,000 African villagers displaced by the conflict.

A Save the Children statement said a Sudanese government plane dropped several bombs on Tawilla, with one landing 50 yards from one of the organization’s feeding centers.

Somerwill said African Union forces confirmed that Sudanese “air assets were used, but we can’t confirm there was hostile action.”

If the reports are correct, they represent an apparent breach of accords between rebels and the government.