(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-15 10:33

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- Gunmen stormed a Darfur prison, setting free at least 90 detainees, officials and local media said Monday as sporadic violence continued to erupt throughout the western Sudanese region.

Soldiers from the joint United Nations-African Union (UNAMID) peacekeeping force guard a supply convoy leaving El Fasher in Sudan's Darfur region, January 13, 2008. [Agencies]

A large group of armed men driving pickup trucks overran the prison in the South Darfur town of Buram, injuring two guards, the semiofficial Sudan Media Center and other media reported.

Sudanese police did not comment and would not say who the detainees were and why they were in prison.

But a UN official in South Darfur said the attack appeared to have been conducted by fighters from the Salamat tribe of nomadic Arabs, who escaped with several of the detainees also believed to be Salamat. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The Salamat and other Darfur nomadic tribes are among the groups suspected of belonging to the janjaweed, an Arab militia that the Sudanese government is accused of having armed and funded to fight Darfur's ethnic African rebels.

More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.5 million been chased to refugee camps since 2003 when local rebels took arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government.

Rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement claim to be closing-in on El Geneina, West Darfur's capital, and UN officials confirmed they now control large sectors near the border.