KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Rebels from Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region launched a new assault on the country’s once placid heartland on Wednesday, attacking an army base and sending civilians running for cover, rebels and witnesses said.

Residents in al-Rachad, in the central North Kordofan state, home to much of Sudan’s production of gum arabic, an additive used in soft drinks, said they could hear explosions and intense gunfire outside the nearby town of Jebel al-Dayer.

“People have arrived today here fleeing fighting in the area of Jebel al-Dayer,” said a resident of Rachad, asking not to be named.

Gibril Adam, spokesman for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), one of the biggest rebels groups in Darfur, said: “We handed the army a defeat.”

No more details were immediately available. Army spokesman al-Sawarmi Khalid could not immediately be reached.

Rachad is close to the state capital El-Obeid and Um Rawaba, a city which JEM and other rebels stormed for one day in April, shocking the army by moving their fight from their remote borderlands to within 500 km (300 miles) of Khartoum.

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