Heavy fighting across Sudan conflict state, ‘dozens killed’
By Simon Martelli (AFP) – 7 hours ago
KHARTOUM — Clashes between troops and rebels in Sudan’s war-torn state of South Kordofan Thursday killed dozens of people, UN and rebel sources said, with an NGO worker reportedly among the dead.
Rebels from the SPLM-North attacked a checkpoint in the Kurgul area, around 35 kilometres (20 miles) south of Deleng, reportedly killing 12 Sudanese soldiers at around 0530 GMT, a UN source told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Three vehicles were caught in the crossfire, including two private buses and a car belonging to an international NGO, in which a Sudanese staff member was killed and his driver seriously wounded, the source added.
The road, the main land route to South Kordofan state’s capital Kadugli, runs through a mountainous area known to host SPLM-North rebels.
Fighting between the Sudanese army and SPLM/A militiamen in South Kordofan broke out in June, just one month before the independence of South Sudan.
Separate clashes on Thursday indicate that four months later the conflict, which was apparently triggered by the army’s insistence on disarming SPLA elements, is still intense.
The SPLM/A fought with the former rebel army of the south during their decades-long war with Khartoum.
Earlier, the rebels and the army reported heavy fighting in the state’s eastern Rashad district, with both claiming to have killed dozens on the opposing side.
A spokesman for the SPLM-North said they had killed around 60 soldiers in the early-morning attack on an army position.
“The SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) launched a heavy attack in the Rashad area early this morning,” rebel spokesman Arnu Ngutulu Lodi told AFP.
“They killed 60 SAF (Sudan Armed Forces) troops and destroyed 13 mounted land cruisers,” he added.
A number of rebels had also been killed, he said, without elaborating.
The commissioner of Rashad district, Khaled Mukhtar, quoted by the semi-official Sudan Media Centre website, confirmed that the SPLA had launched a surprise attack on the army, near the border with South Sudan.
But he said the rebels had suffered heavy losses.
“More than 30 of them were killed, among them an officer, and two fighters were taken prisoner,” and the army had also captured a large amount of weapons, Mukhtar said.
It has been very difficult to get independent information on the border conflict, with the UN peacekeeping mission disbanded in July and most international NGOs denied access to the region.
Another SPLM source said on Thursday that the Sudanese air force had bombed a village near the town of Talodi, where clashes were reported earlier this week, and that a local leader had been killed.
“The village does not have any military presence, and the raid seems to have been carried out because the villagers refused to join the Popular Defence Force,” Gamar Delman said, referring to the feared militia that is now part of the Sudanese army.
Khartoum has sought to reassert its authority within its new borders since South Sudan’s recognition as the world’s newest nation on July 9, moving to disarm troops outside its control.
South Kordofan and Blue Nile, where a similar conflict broke out on September 2, are located just north of Sudan’s new international border.
But they both have large numbers of SPLM-North supporters and troops, who have historic political ties to Khartoum’s former civil war enemies, now the ruling party in Juba.
Earlier this week, the UN human rights envoy for Sudan warned that the ongoing violence in the border region could jeopardise peace between north and south.
“Sudan and South Sudan cannot be at peace if the border areas between the two countries remain mired in armed conflict,” Mohamed Chande Othman told the UN Human Rights Council.
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Sudan Clashes Resume in Southern Kordofan State, SMC Reports
By Salma El Wardany – Sep 23, 2011
Thirty people were killed in clashes between the Sudanese army and rebels in Southern Kordofan State near the border with newly independent South Sudan, the state-run Sudanese Media Center reported.
Violence erupted late yesterday in Sudan’s main oil- producing state, according to SMC, as government forces fought members of the northern branch of the ruling party in South Sudan. Gamar Dalman, spokesman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, didn’t answer calls seeking comment.
Fighting in the border states of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile started after President Umar al-Bashir’s government tried to disarm soldiers who fought during a two-decade civil war alongside the forces of South Sudan, which gained independence on July 9.
As many as 150,000 people have fled their homes in Southern Kordofan since June 5, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Fighting this month in Blue Nile state has displaced about 100,000 people, the United Nations News Centre reported on Sept. 13.
In an Aug. 15 report, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights called for an investigation into possible crimes against humanity and war crimes, allegedly committed mainly by government forces, during clashes in Southern Kordofan with insurgents from SPLM-N.
Southern Kordofan accounts for 115,000 barrels a day in crude production, according to Sudan’s minister of state for oil, Ali Ahmed Osman.
To contact the reporter on this story: Salma El Wardany in Khartoum at selwardany@bloomberg.net
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-23/sudan-clashes-resume-in-southern-kordofan-state-smc-reports.html
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