Sudan’s army killed a key rebel leader from the Darfur region Sunday, state media reported, three days after anti-government forces said they had begun advancing on the capital Khartoum. “The Sudanese army announce that they have killed Khalil Ibrahim in fighting today in west Wadbanda, North Kordofan,” the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) said.
Ibrahim headed the Justice and Equality Movement, the most heavily armed group in the Darfur region. The report of his death could not be independently confirmed. On Saturday SUNA, quoting army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad, said the military was combing the North Kordofan-North Darfur border area after JEM “attacked civilians” and targeted local leaders while looting their property in the Umm-Gozain, Goz Abyadh and Aramal areas.
On the official Sudan TV channel, Saad said Sunday that government forces “clashed directly” with Ibrahim’s troops, killing him and “a group of his leaders” as Ibrahim was on his way to South Sudan.
