Darfur rebel leader Saleh Jerbo, charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court, has been killed in the war-ravaged western Sudanese region, fellow rebels and his defence team said. "The defence of Mr Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus hereby notifies the trial chamber, with great sadness... that Mr Jerbo died in North Darfur, Sudan on the afternoon of 19 April 2013, and was buried the same day," said an ICC document published late Tuesday.

Three rebel "commanders" have been killed in Sudan's southern Darfur, the insurgents and army both said on Tuesday after fighting continued in a region where the government has warned about insecurity. The commanders of the Sudan Liberation Army's Minni Minnawi faction died along with other insurgents in the battle at Hejair Tono, the official SUNA news agency quoted army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad as saying. He identified the dead commanders by name and said the battle occurred south of the railway line which runs southeast from Nyala, Sudan's second city.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A group of Sudanese policemen have staged a mutiny in Darfur, according to state news agency SUNA on Sunday, in a fresh sign of the deteriorating security situation in the vast western region. A "limited" number of officers broke away from their Central Reserve Police unit in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, after stealing four Land Cruisers, weapons and provisions, SUNA said, quoting the interior ministry.

Security in Darfur is worsening and militias need to be disarmed, the US charge d'affaires to Sudan Joseph Stafford said on Sunday, condemning the recent attack which killed a peacekeeper. Stafford also expressed grave concern "about the reports of civilian casualties and deliberate targeting of civilians by militias in Muhagiriya and Labado", the region where the Nigerian peacekeeper died on Friday.