One Sudanese policeman and one soldier were killed and nine others wounded in an armed clash on Saturday between the police and a former rebel faction which had signed a peace accord with the government last year, confirmed the police.

Some armed men belonging to the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Minni Arkou Minawi and some armed police troops opened fire at each other on the streets in Omdurman, northwest of Khartoum, according to witnesses.

Sudanese police spokesman Mohammed Najeeb told reporters that the clash was touched off by a traffic accident between a group of SLM members and local citizens.

The SLM group beat the citizens and seriously injured them, he said, adding when the police started criminal investigations into the incident after receiving complaints from the citizens, the SLM refused to hand over the suspects to the police.

Following the negotiations between the police and the SLM failed, the police had to take actions in order to arrest the suspects, Najeeb said.

According to the spokesman, SLM members opened fire at armed policemen who were trying to break into the rest house where the SLM members were residing, while another group of the SLM members were attacking from the back of the policemen.

The police had managed to control the situation after detaining 41 members of the SLM in spite of the casualties, he said.

Minawi, who leads the main faction of the SLM, signed the Darfur Peace Agreement with the Sudanese government in the Nigerian capital Abuja on May 5, 2006 and was sworn in as the senior presidential assistant in Khartoum in August of the same year.

Other rebel groups, including the second faction of the SLM and the radical Justice and Equality Movement, have refused to sign the peace agreement, claiming that it was unfair and did not meet all their demands.

Source: Xinhua