WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Washington is "deeply concerned" about allegations of attacks by Sudanese forces on a village in South Darfur, a spokesman for the National Security Council said.
The hybrid African Union-U.N. Mission in Darfur said Friday that soldiers with the Sudanese armed forces and the Sudan Liberation Army / Minni Minawi clashed for several hours in Khor Abeche in South Darfur.
"There are indications of combatant casualties being treated at UNAMID camp but number and classification of injured is yet to be established," the agency said in a statement. "Khor Abeche population is gathered at the mission's team site, under the protection of the peacekeepers."
Similar attacks were carried out last week by members of the Sudanese armed forces.
Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said Sudanese authorities have the responsibility to protect its citizens, condemning the attack in the strongest terms.
"The United States is deeply concerned about reports that the Sudanese armed forces attacked and burnt the village of Khor Abeche in South Darfur," he said in a statement.
Rights groups worry that a January referendum for self-determination for South Sudan is overshadowing the conflict in the troubled Darfur region.
UNAMID said that as a response of the ground attack last week, it "demarched the government at the highest level for the attacks on the village to cease."
