By Mohamed al-Khatem
KHARTOUM
The Sudanese army on Sunday allowed a joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission to enter a village in the restive western Darfur region to investigate claims about the rape of 200 women and girls in it, the army spokesman said.
Colonel Alswarmi Khaled Saad described reports about the rape of the 200 women and girls in Tabit village in North Darfur as mere "lies and rumors" that aimed to tarnish the reputation of the Sudanese army.
"An army force had entered the village to search for a soldier who had gone missing," Saad said.
He added that the search operation had taken place in the light of legal rules with no harm being done to anybody.
The Sudanese army spokesman noted that the peacekeeping mission had wanted to enter Tabit before to investigate the rape claims, noting that its members were advised to seek permission from Sudanese authorities first.
On Wednesday, the mission accused Sudanese authorities of preventing its members from entering the village, which is located 45 kilometers southern Al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur, to investigate media reports that 200 women and girls were raped in it.
A day earlier, Radio Dabanga, which is broadcast from the Netherlands, quoted a tribal source as saying that government troops had broken into Tabit village and raped more than 200 women and girls.
Darfur has been the scene of a ferocious war between the Sudanese government and three rebel movements since 2003. The war has left 300,000 people dead and displaced around 2.5 million others so far, according to UN figures.
The Darfur conflict prompted in 2009 an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on a number of charges including genocide committed by government forces and allied militias.
The African Union/United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) has been working in Darfur since early 2008.
It is by far the second largest peacekeeping mission in the world, containing 20,000 troops, policemen and personnel from different countries. The mission had a total budget of $1.4 billion in 2013.
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