KIGALI/KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Rwandan President Paul Kagame said on Sunday that Khartoum had some explaining to do over two deadly attacks on Rwandan peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region.
The governor of north Darfur, Osman Kebir, told Sudan's state Suna news agency that a number of men suspected of the first ambush had been arrested and would be charged.
In this three members of Darfur's joint U.N./African Union UNAMID mission were killed on Friday when gunmen opened fire on their convoy in the north Darfur settlement of Saraf Omra.
Kebir condemned the shooting, saying bandits had started to target UNAMID convoys to steal their vehicles.
The men had been taken to north Darfur's capital El Fasher where they would "be presented before a court to receive punishment for their heinous act," he added.
A day after the first attack, men dressed in traditional robes shot dead two more Rwandan soldiers as they distributed water in a refugee camp in the north Darfur town of Shangil Tobay.
Referring to both attacks, Kagame called on Khartoum for an explanation. "I'm not suggesting that Sudan is actually targeting UNAMID," he told a local radio station.
"We'll wait and see but I'm also suggesting the possibilities that the government may have responsibility, or have some explaining to do to us about how this has happened twice in a short period of time close to their positions."
Earlier Rwandan army spokesman Jill Rutaremara said it had information pointing a finger towards Sudan.
"In the area where they were killed, there were no rebel forces there. The area where they were killed is just 300 metres from the government checkpoint," he told Reuters.
The comments from Kigali could strain already troubled relations between Khartoum and the UNAMID force in Darfur which is headed by Rwandan army Lieutenant General Patrick Nyamvumba.
Kagame said he would wait for an investigation before any steps were taken, adding that relations between both nations had not yet been affected by the attacks.
No one was immediately available for comment at Sudan's Ministry of Defence. Officials from the Ministry of Foreign affairs and army declined to comment.
UNAMID told Reuters it was investigating both attacks and said it was too early to say whether they were linked.
Rwanda and Nigeria are the largest contributors to the mostly African peacekeeping force.
Sudan's Foreign Ministry last week summoned the acting head of UNAMID to protest against a U.N. report which accused the Sudanese army of harassing and threatening Darfur peacekeepers.
Bandit attacks, armed robberies and kidnappings have surged in Darfur more than six years after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Sudan's government, accusing it of neglecting the western territory.
Sudan's government mobilised mostly Arab militias to crush the uprising, unleashing a wave of violence that Washington and some activists call genocide, a term rejected by Khartoum.
Estimates of the death toll range from 300,000 according to the United Nations, to 10,000 according to Khartoum.
(Reporting by Andrew Heavens and Hereward Holland in Kigali; writing by Duncan Miriri in Nairobi, Editing by David Stamp)
