Sudanese government accuses rebels of murdering its relief workers

Monday November 17th, 2003.

KHARTOUM, Nov 17 (AFP) -- The government has accused rebels in western Sudan of killing two of its relief workers and abducting three others in an attack on an aid convoy, a newspaper said Monday.

Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Sulaf Eddin Salih told independent Al Sahafa daily that the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) rebels attacked the convoy in North Darfur State last week.

The SLM killed a driver and a relief worker while also kidnapping three other workers, all Sudanese, he was quoted as saying.

He said his government is worried about the "continued" rebel attacks which he said "threaten the humanitarian operations and result in losing human lives and worsening the humanitarian situation."

Salih appealed to the international community to intervene to halt and denounce the "repeated" armed operations on the humanitarian assistance convoys.

He also urged it to stop all forms support -- political, material and moral -- to the Darfur rebels "so that peace can be achieved."

Since February, the region has been wracked by clashes between the SLM, which is demanding a better economic deal from Khartoum, and government forces backed by Arab militias.

Conflicts have long simmered between ethnic Arab nomadic tribesmen and African farmers, but they appear to have spun out of control since the government used the tribesmen in the war against the rebels, relief workers say.