Darfur rebels say 27 killed by gov't, militias

ABUJA, Mar 11 (Reuters) A rebel group today accused Sudanese government troops and their militia allies of killing 27 people and stealing livestock in attacks on villages in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

The attacks, which took place yesterday according to the rebel group, came as diplomatic efforts intensified at the African Union (AU) and the United Nations to speed up peace talks and solve a row over a proposed UN presence in Darfur.

Ahmed Tugod, chief negotiator for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) at peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja, gave the names of six villages in the Graida area of Darfur which he said were attacked by troops and Janjaweed militiamen.

''These villages have been completely destroyed. They killed 27 people, 17 are injured and six are missing including children,'' he said, adding that he had obtained this information by telephone from JEM members in the area.

''They took 150 heads of cattle and 300 sheep,'' Tugod said.

A government delegate at the Abuja talks said he was unaware of any attack and declined to comment.

Security in Darfur has deteriorated recently to the point that vast areas are now off-limits to aid workers.

Graida was named as a contentious area in an AU communique on Friday, which called for the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), a larger Darfur rebel group, to withdraw from the area.

The SLA and the JEM took up arms in early 2003 over what they described as discrimination and neglect by the government.

Khartoum is accused by UN and US officials of arming the Janjaweed, marauding Arab militia who have killed, raped, pillaged and driven some 2 million villagers into squalid camps. Sudan has denied that it controls the Janjaweed.

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