Curfew lifted in Sudanese capital
Country breaks off ties with Chad, saying it was behind incursion by Darfur group.
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Abdel Haleem al-Mutafi, Khartoum’s governor, told the Reuters news agency that the army was still operating in the outskirts of Omdurman, west of Khartoum, so the curfew would remain in place there.
Jan Eliasson, the UN envoy on Darfur, told Al Jazeera that the JEM has nothing to gain from the attack.
“I told representatives of JEM they will not achieve any sense of victory from this situation,” he said.
“I fear the situation may get out of control, and this will prove disastrous to the people of Darfur.”
“We are now cutting our diplomatic relations with this regime,” Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, said on state television.
“These forces [behind the attack] are all basically Chadian forces supported and prepared by Chad and they moved from Chad under the leadership of Khalil Ibrahim.”
“The Chadian government, which has always supported efforts for peace in Sudan and in the region, encourages authorities and the opposition [Sudanese rebels] to maintain the voice of dialogue.”
But Ibrahim Mahmoud, Sudan’s interior minister, said the fighters had been “chased away” three hours after the attack began.