Sudan army-rebels battle kills dozens

Clashes between Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and rebels have left dozens killed and injured on both sides on Friday, the military report says.

Army spokesman Capt. Al-Sawarmy Khaled Saad said the rebels were part of the main Justice and Equality Movement troops, having been involved in faltering peace talks with the government.

The Friday bloodshed took place on a main north-south highway in the vast desert region in western Darfur, the official SUNA news agency quoted him as saying.

In a battle that lasted for four hours, the rebels ambushed a small army unit, Khaled Saad said and added that 8 soldiers and 13 rebels were killed and many more were injured.

He said that the military was carrying out what he described as a wide-ranging mopping-up operation in search of the remnants of Friday’s attacking forces.

The Darfur conflict began in 2003. As many as 300,000 people have died in the fighting between the government forces and rebel factions, whose demands include greater control over natural resources.

At least 2.7 million people have been displaced inside Darfur and in neighboring Chad.

Two years of Qatar-hosted peace talks on Darfur recently collapsed after the Sudanese government withdrew its negotiating delegation on December 30, 2010 and declared that it has moved the negotiations to Sudan, which are rejected by the Darfur armed movements.