**Renewed fighting is reported to have broken out in Darfur despite Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir declaring the war in the western region was over.**French aid group Medecins du Monde said it has had to suspend its operations in central Darfur’s Jebel Marra.
A faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) said there had been heavy fighting late into Wednesday night.
The SLA did not agree to the ceasefire that Khartoum reached with the region’s other main rebel group, Jem, this week.
A spokesman for the SLA, loyal to Abdel Wahid Mohamed el-Nur, said government forces attacked several positions in its mountainous stronghold, including the town of Deribat.
“The government attacked in huge numbers backed up by Antonovs, helicopter gunships and MiGs (Russian military aircraft),” Ibrahim al-Hillu told Reuters news agency.
The Justice and Equality Movement is expected to sign a final peace accord next month but its leader, Khalil Ibrahim, has again called for the postponement of elections due to be held in April.