Darfur Rebel Faction Fighting Spreads

Darfur Rebel Faction Fighting Spreads, Fuels Ethnic Violence

July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Spreading clashes between rebel factions in Sudan's western region of Darfur are threatening to unleash an ethnic conflict, United Nations officials, African Union officers and refugees said.

Forces loyal to rebel leader Minni Minnawi in the past month have overrun North Darfur villages inhabited by the Fur people, Darfur's largest ethnic group, which mainly supports a rival rebel faction headed by Abdel Wahid Mohamed el-Nur.

Minnawi, from the minority Zaghawa tribe, in a telephone interview yesterday, said he told President George W. Bush at a July 25 meeting in Washington that his troops weren't attacking civilians. Minnawi and the Sudanese government in May signed a peace agreement that was rejected by Nur's faction in the Sudan Liberation Army. Read more >>>