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Sudan

Sudan: Darfur rebels free all African Union hostages

By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Darfur rebels have released all 38 African Union hostages they held in the western Sudanese region, the last two after a gunbattle with a rival group, an AU spokesman and one of the freed hostages said on Monday.

The AU had blamed a breakaway faction of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) for Sunday's kidnapping of a ceasefire monitoring team. The faction denied the accusations.

The Cameroonian leader of the AU team, who was one of the last two still being held, confirmed that he and his Sudanese translator had been freed after a shootout between rival rebel groups.

Commanders from the mainstream JEM rebel force had secured his release, he said by phone, declining to give his name.

"We are safe -- there was some firing but they managed to liberate us," he added.

About 6,000 AU troops are deployed in Darfur to monitor a shaky ceasefire but violence has escalated in recent weeks, prompting the organisation last week to voice its harshest public criticism of Darfur rebels and the Sudanese government.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that U.N. aid to Darfur could be suspended after the "completely unacceptable" hostage-taking.

"Both rebels and government must understand that, if these incidents continue, it will impede humanitarian assistance and delivery," Annan told reporters in Geneva.

The AU said the breakaway group first kidnapped a multi-national ceasefire monitoring team on Sunday and then took the rescue team in the Chadian-Sudanese border town of Tine.

AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni said the military head of its mission had earlier witnessed the release of 36 of the hostages.

The kidnappings followed the 53-nation AU's first casualties in Darfur, five soldiers and civilian workers, who were killed in an ambush on Saturday, blamed on another rebel group.

AU officials said the monitoring team included a U.S. observer, a JEM representative and other AU forces. The U.S. embassy in Khartoum confirmed the release of a U.S. hostage.

PEACE TALKS

The rebel faction, which split from JEM's leadership earlier this year, was demanding a seat at peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja, AU sources said.

However, the head of the JEM dissident faction, Mohamed Saleh, told Reuters from Darfur he had not taken the AU hostages, even though he has a base near Tine.

"We want the AU to leave and we have warned them not to travel to our areas," he said. "We don't know and don't care what is happening to the AU, they are part of the conflict now."

A sixth round of AU-sponsored peace talks began last month between the government and the two main Darfur rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and JEM. It has faltered with an escalation of violence on the ground in recent weeks.

Saleh was the military commander of JEM and signed a much-violated Darfur ceasefire in April 2004. He said he commanded thousands of troops in Darfur and would not honour either the ceasefire or any agreement reached in Abuja.

"We went to Abuja and they refused to talk to us," he said. "So now we will not talk to them."

JEM, SLA and the AU mediator all said talks in Abuja would continue despite the violence on the ground.

Non-Arab rebels took up arms in Darfur in early 2003 accusing the government of neglect and of monopolising power and wealth. Tens of thousands have been killed and more than 2 million forced from their homes by the violence, which the United States calls genocide.

Khartoum denies genocide, but the International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in Darfur.