Around 100 miners are estimated to have died inside a collapsed gold mine in Sudan's Darfur region and nine rescuers trying to free them are now trapped, a miner said on Friday. "Nine of the rescue team disappeared when the land collapsed around them yesterday (Thursday)," said the miner, who had visited the scene and asked to remain anonymous. On Monday the unlicensed desert gold mine began to collapse in Jebel Amir district, more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) northwest of the North Darfur state capital El Fasher.

More than 130 people have been killed in the latest outbreak of tribal fighting in western Sudan's Darfur region, a tribal leader said on Friday. "Fighting was going on until last night and from our side we have 37 dead," said the leader of the Beni Halba tribe, who claimed that more than 100 members of the rival Gimir group were also killed. A Gimir official could not immediately be reached.

Sudanese rebels swept through a major town in North Kordofan state, residents said on Saturday, widening an anti-government offensive in one of the insurgents' most audacious acts in years. North Kordofan has been largely free from the rebel activity taking place in the Darfur region to its west, and South Kordofan to its south. "This is part of our strategy to overthrow the regime and we want to weaken the troops on the road towards Khartoum," said Gibril Adam Bilal, spokesman for Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) which is part of a rebel coalition.

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.