The Sudanese police said on Monday that rebels have attacked an oil pumping station in southern Darfur and the African Union accused the army of continuing its military operations in the war-torn region.
Police chief Abdeen al-Tahir said Monday that 15 people were killed when rebels attacked an oil pumping station over the weekend in South Darfur state.
"They killed 15 people -- two workers, three civilians and 10 from the army," he said. "This was the rebels who came in five vehicles Saturday afternoon," he added.
A Sudanese oil ministry official said that the operations of the Sharif oil field, which produces around 3,000 barrels per day, haven’t been affected by the attack.
Sudanese oil fields generate around 320,000 barrels per day of crude oil and the government hopes to increase its production to more than half a million barrels by 2005.
Ceasefire is not respected
Meanwhile, an AU official reported that an AU helicopter was attacked while on its way to the region. "The helicopter is OK. There are no injuries and gunshot holes were seen on the body of the helicopter," the official, who demanded anonymity, said.
AU officials said that the attack meant that a ceasefire between the government and rebels in the Labado area was not respected, though it was not clear who attacked the helicopter.
"When there is some incident like this we have to stop and take a break to assess the situation ..." the official said.
The AU is gradually increasing the number of its multinational monitoring force in Darfur to more than 3,000. On Monday, 196 Gambian soldiers were dispatched to the region, bringing the total size of AU troops to 800.
Libyans mediate in Abuja talks
In the AU talks at Abuja, Libyan mediators met with rebels and Sudanese government officials in an attempt to convince them to end the violence in Darfur and resume the peace talks.
Rebel negotiators said that they doubted whether the Libyans would be successful in restarting the talks.
“We met the Libyan team today and we made our demands known to them. They said they will talk to the Sudan government and get back to us," Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) official Mansour Arbab said.
The SLM and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) boycotted the talks, saying that Sudanese army must stop its military offensive in South Darfur state.
The African Union had allowed the Sudanese government a 24-hour deadline, which expired Saturday evening, to end the fighting or be sent to the UN Security Council.
However, the AU charge that violence continued in southern Darfur in the last couple of days, despite a promise by the Sudanese government that it would cease its military operations.
"The talks have deadlocked because we are not moving anywhere. The only option left is for the AU to take the matter to the UN Security Council because it seems that is the only body that can handle the situation now," JEM spokesman Ahmed Adam said.
But AU spokesman Assane Ba said that the AU would allow Libya more time to persuade the fighting parties to continue the talks, adding that the African body wasn’t yet planning to report the case to the UN Security Council.