LJM accuses Sudanese army of attacking its forces

The Darfur Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), a signatory to a peace deal with Sudan government, on Thursday accused the Sudanese army of attacking its military units and threatened to withdraw from the agreement.“The Sudanese army deliberately attacked the movement’s forces on Wednesday near El Fasher, capital city of North Darfur State which resulted in the killing of two members of the movement,” said Al-Tigani Sessei, LJM chairman, at a press conference. “Our movements were known for the army, but we were surprised by this deliberate attack,” he added.Sessei criticized what he termed as “misleading campaign” by the Sudanese government to show that the Sudanese army’s attack was against the forces of the Revolutionary Front, an alliance that brings together major Darfur armed movements which are rejecting the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD).He stressed that what happened could demolish the DDPD, signed between his movement and the Sudanese government in the Qatari capital of Doha last year.Local Sudanese media on Wednesday reported that the Sudanese army clashed with a group belonging to the Revolutionary Front as they were trying to bombard El Fasher, and killed three members of the group. No comment could be attained from the Sudanese army spokesman about the reports, but North Darfur State Governor reiterated that the forces attacked by the Sudanese army belonged to the revolutionary front and that they were planning to bombard the state’s capital El Fasher, according to Ashrouq net. “Those forces are the same forces which were bombarding the outskirts of the city in previous times,” Ashrouq quoted Kibir as saying.He accused trends he did not name of working to make troubles and indicate that the security is not stable.Violence escalated in the Darfur region during the past two months, which pushed the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) to express concerns over the mounting violence in the region and urge the conflicting parties to avoid whatever might threaten the fragile peace in the restive region.Three Darfur rebel groups -- the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)/Minni Minnawi faction, and the SLA/Abdul-Wahid Mohamed Nur faction, have been fighting the central government in Khartoum since 2003. The three groups are rejecting the DDPD, signed in June 2011 between the Sudanese government and the LJM under the auspices of Qatar.