JEM Claims It Shot SAF Military Aircraft, SAF Denies

11 November 2010 – (Khartoum) – The Darfur anti-government group the Justice and Equality Movement claims that it shot down a military aircraft belonging to the Sudan Armed Forces in Northern Kordofan on Monday.

JEM army commander Suleiman Sandal spoke to SRS on Tuesday. He also said that during the clash they were able to capture 23 SAF soldiers.

[Suleiman Sandal]: “During our presence and movements there, the aircrafts starts bombarding us using Antonovs and Mig. Yesterday we managed to shoot down a military Mig and it completely crashed down and burned in Northern Kordofan state south of Magero area. We do have some prisoners of war, captured during this fighting. They are around 23 of them.”

However, the SAF military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Alsawarmi Khalid assured SRS that no military aircraft had been shot but he acknowledged that some SAF soldiers are missing.

[Alsawarmi Khalid]: “In fact as they claimed shooting a Mig aircraft, this is completely contrary to logic. It’s completely untrue. We don’t have any aircraft and they don’t have any proof for this talk, if they shot a Mig airplane they are to bring the photo, and people inside it, and anything like that. Regarding the prisoners, it is possible, they may have prisoners, but we don’t have that in official reports, how many are they and who is that officer, they captured? But this could be true they have prisoners, we lost some armed soldiers.”

The surge of violence takes place as the government and another antigovernment group - the Liberation and Justice Movement - are preparing to sign a peace agreement in Doha.