By Skye Wheeler KHARTOUM, May 29 (Reuters) Darfur rebels said on Thursday they had pulled out of two key settlements close to the border with Chad after coming under heavy bombardment from Sudanese government forces. The insurgent Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) told Reuters it had withdrawn from Kornoi and Umm Baru, both settlements in North Darfur it said it seized from state troops earlier this month. JEM's announcement marked a reversal in the rebel force's recent push into the remote region, an advance that coincided with a deterioration of relations between the governments of Sudan and Chad, which Khartoum says supports JEM. The development also came as faltering negotiations between Sudan's government and JEM resumed in Qatar. The discussions have so far not evolved into full peace talks. Sudan's army on Thursday evening issued a short statement saying it was in control of Kornoi, without referring to any air attacks or clashes on the ground. It has always denied losing Umm Baru to JEM. "The elements of the Justice and Equality Movement have fled toward the Chadian borders after they had fully evacuated the area," army spokesman Brigadier Uthman al-Agbash told the state Suna news agency. JEM said it seized an army base in Kornoi, 50 km (30 miles) east on a road leading south east from the Chad border, on May 16. Eight days later it announced it had also taken Umm Baru, another government garrison further along the same road. "We have withdrawn from Kornoi and Umm Baru for humanitarian purposes. The government warplanes were making very wide bombardment," senior JEM commander Suleiman Sandal told Reuters by satellite phone. He said his forces had pulled out on Thursday morning to protect the civilian population from the air attacks. "Government Antonovs, MiGs and helicopters have been bombing heavily and indiscriminately ... every day and night." Sudan's army said 64 people died in the fighting around Umm Baru, while JEM said an unspecified number of people also died from both sides in the Kornoi clashes earlier this month. It was the latest fighting in Darfur's six-year conflict which flared when JEM and other mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Sudan's government, accusing it of neglecting the development of the region. Estimates of the resulting death toll range from 10,000 according to Khartoum, to 300,000 according to the U.N.'s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, John Holmes. Tensions have been building along Sudan's remote border with Chad for weeks. The two oil producers have long accused one another of supporting each other's rebels.
Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) spokesman Yein Matthew briefs the media in the capital Khartoum May 25, 2009. A bomb was left outside a Khartoum office of the SPLM on Monday ...
