CAR blames Sudan rebels for cross-border ambush

23 April 2012 defenceWeb (Reuters)

Central African Republic said that Sudanese rebels killed 11 of its soldiers in a cross-border ambush aimed at stealing weapons and ammunition.

The attack took place on Tuesday at a military post in Amdafok, a few kilometers from the border with Sudan's Darfur region, officials said.

"The Central African contingent ... was attacked Tuesday at Amdafok, with 11 killed and 11 injured," the government said in a statement read over national radio, Reuters reports.

It added the attackers were "Tora Bora rebels", slang for anti-Khartoum rebels from Darfur, seeking to resupply after fighting in the Sudanese town of Nyala.

Violence in Darfur, where the United Nations and the African Union maintain a huge joint peacekeeping operation, has subsided since its peak in 2003 and 2004, but rebel and tribal fighting still plagues the territory.

Sudan and the newly created South Sudan are also on the brink of war in a dispute largely over control of oil reserves on the ill-defined frontier.

An army officer evacuated to the capital Bangui after being shot in the leg told Reuters the garrison was attacked by rebels in as many as 50 vehicles, and that the Sudanese military later shelled them and forced them into retreat.

Central African Republic's army has been conducting joint security operations with Sudan and Chad in the vast and lawless border region, where several rebel groups operate.

The officer said 60 rebels were killed. That figure could not be confirmed.