WORST VIOLENCE
Sudan's armed forces launched their offensive in West Darfur on February 8 and said they were clearing out fighters from the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Residents of the targeted towns Abu Surouj, Suleia and Sirba, and surrounding villages, said rebels had left days before the attacks.
Aid agencies said up to 60,000 Darfuris were affected and 12,000 fled into neighbouring Chad to escape the worst violence in the region in months.
Locals say more than 100 civilians were killed although they army says many were rebels in civilian clothing.
International experts estimate some 200,000 have died and 2.5 million driven from their homes in almost five years of violence in Darfur which Washington calls genocide. Khartoum rejects the term and puts the death toll at 9,000.
Survivors of the attacks speak of khaki-clad camel and horseback militia they call Janjaweed who stole, raped and killed before the army entered and drove them away.
Sudan's army said these were criminal gangs who took advantage of the offensive to loot and denied any links to them.
In Kondobe, locals pointed out men on horses and camels roaming through the town market in broad daylight and said they were the looters.
Some of the riders wore green army uniforms and carried rifles. When asked, they said they were civilians.
Two others said they belonged to the army and one, al-Sadig Haroun, pulled out his Sudan Armed Forces identity card.
"Sudan is good. These people here (in Kondobe) are our brothers and we have even married with each other," he said.
He belonged to a nearby army base and was from the Arab Rizeigat tribe, he said, and he joined the army two years ago.
Other men on horses with guns slipped under their saddle bags arrived and told journalists to stop filming and berated their colleagues for talking.
