Rebels from Sudan’s Darfur region have begun moving towards the capital Khartoum, their spokesman said Thursday, more than three years after they made an unprecedented attack on the capital.
“Now our troops are moving from Darfur in an easterly direction towards the capital Khartoum,” Gibril Adam Bilal, of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), told AFP from London.
“Our main fight with this government has already started.”
Sudan’s army spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment.
Bilal said JEM had reached En Nahud, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of Darfur in North Kordofan state, on a mission to change the regime led by President Omar al-Bashir.
In 2008 more than 222 people were killed when JEM guerrillas drove about 1,000 kilometres across the desert to Omdurman, just over the River Nile from the presidential palace on the Khartoum side.
Government troops repulsed them after heavy clashes and later sentenced dozens of rebels to death for their role in the assault.