At a crucial time when all Sudanese people are looking positively, and with great hope, to finding a peaceful solution to the conflict in Darfur, the treacherous Khartoum regime is launching, this morning, a bloody attack on the JEM (Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement) controlled area of Jabal Moon and Bir Saliba in western Darfur. Forces of some eighty Janjaweed, supported by 23 vehicles are involved in this attack, with devastating consequences: Mass Killing and Genocide in the area. They burned down and looted all Bir Saliba this morning. They are only 9 kilometres away from Jabal Moon.

We make an urgent appeal to the African Union and the international community to take the strongest punitive action towards this treacherous regime that continues to test the resolve of the international community and ignores all Security Council resolutions. We, in JEM, would like to make it clear to the Khartoum government that our patience has run out and we could not stay passive any longer in the face of repetitive violations of the cease-fire agreements signed in Ndjamena, Chad, and Abuja, Nigeria.

Tadjadine Bechir Niam