CAIRO, 12 May 2003 — Sudanese rebels captured a city in northwestern Sudan yesterday after overcoming “weak” resistance from government troops, a representative of the rebel movement said.
“The movement was able to seize the city of Mallit, north of Al-Fashir,” according to Mani Arkoi Minawi, the secretary general of the Sudan Liberation Movement who added he had no information about casualties on either side.
The battle lasted all morning, he said.
“We control” Mallit,” said Minawi, who added he was speaking to AFP from the city itself.
When asked about the city’s importance, he replied: “It’s a large city in Sudan, which has major importance for the movement, since it is a link between Sudan and Libya.”
The movement said at the end of April that it had captured Al-Fashir, the state capital, but the government denied the claim.
In a statement to AFP on Saturday, Minawi promised more attacks against the Islamist government of President Omar Al-Beshir in Khartoum.
Beshir’s government has refused to acknowledge any political motivation for unrest in the states of North, South and West Darfur, blaming it instead on “armed criminal gangs and outlaws,” who it says are aided by tribes from neighboring Chad.
The Sudanese authorities have also accused the southern separatist Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) of helping the “outlaws” in the Darfur region, a charge denied by the SPLA.
The SLA, which first emerged in late February under the label of the Front for the Liberation of Darfur, is not included in the framework of peace talks aimed at ending Khartoum’s 20-year-old civil war with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.
English-Language Daily Closed
A Sudanese court has ordered an English-language daily closed for two months and jailed its top editor after finding them guilty of inciting religious discord, the paper’s lawyer said yesterday.
Ngor Kolang Ngor, lawyer for the Khartoum Monitor, told AFP that he would file an appeal today against the sentences imposed Saturday on his clients by the North Khartoum criminal court.
The lawsuit was filed by the Ministry of Religious Guidance and Endowments against the newspaper and its managing editor Nhial Bol for publishing articles deemed abusive to Islam, Ngor said.
Bol was placed in jail immediately on Saturday and “will be freed only when we get the money,” said the defense lawyer.
