South Sudan says Sudan bombed 2 oil wells in South Sudan, 75 kilometers from the two countries’ contested border.
JUBA, Sudan—South Sudanese officials say that Sudanese armed forces bombed two oil wells inside South Sudan and Sudanese troops are massing near the disputed border.
The spokesman for South Sudan’s armed forces said Thursday that two Sudanese planes dropped 6 bombs in Pariang county, along the north-south border on Wednesday afternoon. Col. Philip Aguer says at least one well had been damaged and was leaking into the ground, polluting drinking water.
He says Sudan has also been massing ground forces in a nearby town.
Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Al Obeid Merwah did not answer calls for comment.
South Sudan became independent from Sudan in July but many issues remain unresolved, including the demarcation of the border and the sharing of oil revenues.
Officials in South Sudan have accused neighboring Sudan of bombing oil wells, the latest sign of rising tension between the countries.
Several officials, including government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin, say Sudanese warplanes dropped bombs Wednesday in an area of Unity State, about 75 kilometers from the two countries’ contested border.
The officials say the bombardment destroyed two oil wells.
A spokesman for Sudan’s military, Sawarmi Khaled Saad, dismissed the accusations as false.
Marial said the attack violated a non-aggression pact Sudan and South Sudan signed in Ethiopia last month.
“…this is actually a violation of the non-aggression treaty that we signed two weeks ago and with the nature of Sudan’s government, they always don’t respect what they signed with anybody. We are not surprised.”
The south has repeatedly accused the north of violating its territory, and both sides have accused each other of supporting the other’s rebels.
The two countries are locked in a dispute over oil revenues. The south took over three-fourths of Sudanese oil production when it became independent last July but relies on northern pipelines and facilities to send the oil abroad.
The north seized millions of barrels of oil after the south refused to pay what it considered excessive transport fees. The south has reacted by shutting down oil production, a move analysts say is bound to hurt both countries.
The dispute and simmering tensions over the border have raised fears the two Sudans are headed toward war. In the former unified Sudan, the north and south fought a bloody civil war that lasted 21 years.
Marial said Thursday that South Sudan will file a complaint about Sudan with the United Nations Security Council. Sudan filed a complaint about the south with the Security Council on Tuesday.
http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2012/03/01/south-sudan-accuses-north-of-bombing-oil-wells/
South Sudan accuses Khartoum of air strikesMarch 01, 2012 02:14 PM
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JUBA: Sudanese fighter jets have bombed oil and water wells deep inside South Sudan and its ground troops have crossed into contested oil-rich border regions, South Sudan officials said Thursday.
“They have flown into our territory 74 kilometres (46 miles) and are violating South Sudanese airspace,” Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said of the air strikes, which he said took place at noon Wednesday.
Sudanese ground troops had also moved 17 kilometres inside South Sudan’s oil-rich Unity state, army spokesman Philip Aguer said.
Khartoum and Juba dispute areas along the undemarcated border.
South Sudan — which declared independence from Khartoum in July — has accused the north of carrying out several recent bombing raids in frontier regions, but the claims were denied by the Sudanese army.
“Two MiG (fighter jets) bombed Panakuat in Pariang county,” Aguer told AFP on Thursday, adding two bombs struck an oil well and a drinking water well.
“Khartoum… have been bombing South Sudan since last year, but thus is the first time MiGs have come,” Aguer said, adding that previous attacks had been far less accurate bombs rolled out the back of Antonov aircraft.
The region borders Sudan’s Southern Kordofan state where rebels — once part of the ex-guerrilla turned official South Sudanese army — are battling the Khartoum government forces.
Border tensions have mounted since South Sudan split from Sudan in July after decades of war to become the world’s newest nation, with each side accusing the other of backing proxy rebel forces against it.
“They say that we are supporting wars in their territory and it’s simply not true,” Benjamin said.
“The government is in a position to protect its citizens and territory, but it will not be dragged back to a senseless war.”
South Sudan took three quarters of Sudan’s oil reserves, but all pipeline and export facilities are controlled by the north.
The South halted oil production in January — stopping the flow of the resource that accounts for 98 percent of government revenue — after Juba accused Khartoum of stealing $815 million worth of crude oil.
Last month the two sides signed a non-aggression pact agreeing to “respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” and to “refrain from launching any attack, including bombardment.”
Juba accused Khartoum of breaking the accord by bombing border regions just days later.
Last month UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned that tensions between the two nations could escalate if the oil crisis is not resolved.
The South has demanded that any deal includes settlement on the undemarcated border, parts of which cut through oil fields, as well on Abyei, a Lebanon-sized region claimed by both sides but occupied by northern troops
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Mar-01/165165-south-sudan-accuses-khartoum-of-air-strikes.ashx#ixzz1nt4TlIpG
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
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