Sudanese opposition withdraws from Toukar

Khartoum on Tuesday announced that the opposition forces had withdrawn from Toukar, in northeastern Sudan near the border with Eritrea, which had been controlled by these forces for a year.

The Sudanese daily Akhbar al-Youm quoted the parliament speaker of Bahr al-Gazelle province, Hekmat Muhammad Abdullah, as saying that there is "a suspicious withdrawal by the invaders from Southern Toukar," 630 km northeast of Khartoum.

He added that citizens in the area "saw the opposition and the Eritreans while leaving their positions in eight trucks towards Eritrea."

The Sudanese government accused the opposition in the north of attacking the cities of Toukar and controlling it since the beginning of 1997.

Earlier, the spokesman for the Sudanese Army, Lt. Gen. Abdul Rahman Serr al-Khatam, indicated joint Eritrean and Sudanese opposition military build up along the borders of Kasla province to the south of Toukar.