U.S. envoy: Sudan bombing Darfur again

KHARTOUM, Sudan, July 14 (UPI) -- Sudan's government has resumed bombing in the troubled country's Darfur region, a U.S. special envoy says.

The bombing has been focused on Jebel Marra, a stronghold of rebel leader Abdul Wahid Mohammed Nour, said Andrew Natsios, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan.

Natsios said he urged the Sudanese government to observe a ceasefire in Darfur, where 200,000 people have been killed in the last four years and another 2 million have fled their homes, BBC News reported Saturday.

Natsios also accused rebel groups of "criminality and warlordism."

"The United States government is very disturbed by this. It needs to end now," Natsios said.

The Sudanese government this year agreed to a joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping operation for Darfur that would put up to 20,000 soldiers in the region. The final details of that agreement have yet to be worked out, BBC News reported.