Sudanese army clashes with Darfur rebels

KHARTOUM - Sudanese army said Tuesday that it clashed with a small group  of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) members on the Libya-Chad border.

"Our forces have clashed with a small group from the JEM, inflicted heavy loss on them and confiscated a big truck loaded with fuel and arms that the movement looted from Libya," Al- Sawarmy Khalid Saad, spokesman of Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), said in a statement.

A member of the rebel group was killed, he said, explaining that the military enforcement sent by the SAF to the borders with Chad and Libya were meant to tighten border control over the rebels.

The JEM is active on Sudan's borderline with Chad and Libya, which pushed the Sudanese army to increase its border patrols.

The JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim has recently managed to enter the Darfur region after being stranded in the Libyan territories, where he stayed for almost a year.

The JEM refuses to join the Darfur peace negotiations hosted by Qatar under the patronage of the African Union and the United Nations.