Sudan market bombing a “declaration of war”: says South Sudan; as President Bashir Vows in Heglig to Topple Kiir Government
By Hereward Holland | Reuters
OUTSIDE BENTIU, South Sudan (Reuters) – Sudanese war planes bombed a market in the capital of South Sudan’s oil-producing Unity State on Monday, residents and officials said, in an attack the southern army called a declaration of war.
Sudan denied carrying out any air raids but its President Omar Hassan al-Bashir ramped up the political tension by ruling out a return to negotiations with the South, saying its government only understood “the language of the gun”.
A Reuters journalist saw aircraft dropping two bombs near a bridge linking two areas of Unity’s capital Bentiu, although it was not possible to verify the planes’ affiliation. He saw market stalls ablaze and the body of one child.
Weeks of border fighting have brought the neighbors closer to a full-blown war than at any time since South Sudan split away from Sudan as an independent country in July.
The two territories went their separate ways last year without settling a list of bitter disputes over the position of their shared border, the ownership of key territories and how much the landlocked South should pay to transport its oil through Sudan.
The disputes have already halted nearly all the oil production that underpins both struggling economies.
“Bashir is declaring war on South Sudan. It’s something obvious,” southern army (SPLA) spokesman Philip Aguer said after the Bentiu bombing.
Aguer and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan said two people were killed in the air strike in Unity state where the Greater Nile Petroleum Company operates blocs. China’s CNPC leads this consortium, along with Malaysia’s Petronas and India’s ONGC Videsh.
“Early reports indicate the bombings started at 8.30 hours and that Rubkona market has been struck,” the U.N. mission said in a statement, without spelling out who carried out the attack.
“These indiscriminate bombings resulting in the loss of civilian lives must stop,” said Hilde F. Johnson, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for South Sudan.
The mission said its officers had seen one bomb land on the market and three near a bridge. “A young boy burned to death as the hut he was in caught fire from the blast in Rubkona market area,” it quoted one of its officers as saying.
Bentiu is about 80 km (50 miles) from the contested and poorly marked border with Sudan.
Sudan denied carrying out any air attacks in the area. “We have no relation to what happened in Unity state, and we absolutely did not bomb anywhere in South Sudan,” the country’s military spokesman, Al-Sawarmi Khalid, said.
“LANGUAGE OF THE GUN”
In the worst fighting since the split, South Sudan earlier this month seized the disputed oil-producing territory of Heglig – then announced it had started withdrawing on Friday, following sharp criticism from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Bashir, dressed in military uniform, visited the Heglig region on Monday, descending from his plane to shouts of “Allahu akbar” – “God is greatest” – from soldiers and officials gathered on the tarmac.
Speaking to Sudanese army troops, he vowed not to negotiate with South Sudan after it had occupied the region.
“We will not negotiate with the South’s government, because they don’t understand anything but the language of the gun and ammunition,” he said at a barracks near the oilfield along the contested border.
A Reuters journalist on an official tour of the region filmed bombed-out pipelines dripping oil in the largely damaged Heglig oilfield, as well as heavy damage to the central processing facility, power station and other infrastructure.
Abdelazeem Hassan Abdallah, an oil worker in Heglig, accused South Sudan’s forces of attacking the oilfield.
“They know how to do the job completely. They destroyed our main power plant, and they destroyed our processing facilities,” he told Reuters.
“MILILTARY BUILD-UP
General Kamal Abdul Maarouf, a Sudanese army commander who led the battles in Heglig, said his troops had killed 1,200 South Sudanese soldiers in fighting in the area, an account South Sudan denied.
Journalists travelling on an official trip to the region said they saw bodies strewn on the road to the barracks. Some clearly had South Sudanese flags on their uniforms, but it was not always possible to verify their nationalities.
Aguer dismissed Maarouf’s report. “The number of casualties the SPLA has suffered since the 26th or March doesn’t exceed 50,” he said.
South Sudan won its independence in a referendum that was promised in a 2005 peace accord that ended decades of civil war between Khartoum and the south.
South Sudan’s armed forces have 10 helicopters but no fixed-wing aircraft, except for one Beech 1900 light transport aircraft, according to an International Institute for Strategic Studies report.
Sudan has 61 combat capable aircraft, including 23 fighter aircraft.
The Satellite Sentinel Project, founded by Sudan activists, said recent satellite imagery showed Khartoum had “dramatically increased the number of military strike aircraft at two airbases and that many are in range to fly deep into South Sudan.”
The monitoring group said satellite imagery was consistent with reports that Sudanese forces bombed “an apparent civilian area” near a bridge in Bentiu. It also said it appeared the SPLA had looted a Sudanese military base in Heglig, which could be a violation of international law.
(Additional reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz and Alexander Dziadosz in Khartoum, El-Tayeb Siddig in Heglig, Yara Bayoumy in Juba; Writing by Ulf Laessing, Alexander Dziadosz and Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
http://news.yahoo.com/sudan-bombing-declaration-war-south-172307839.html
Sudan president threatens South Sudan government
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Sudan’s president has threatened to topple the government of South Sudan during a visit to an oil-rich border town that has sparked a recent surge in violence between the two countries.
Omar al-Bashir’s comments Monday were the latest in a war of words against Sudan’s southern neighbors.
The two countries disagree over where the border between them lies and ownership of oil resources in the region.
This latest outbreak of violence threatens to escalate into a full-scale war.
Al-Bashir vowed during his visit to Heglig to press ahead with his military campaign until, according to him, all southern troops or affiliated forces are chased out of the north.
His forces bombed a major town inside South Sudan Monday.
RUBKONA, South Sudan (AP) — Sudanese warplanes bombed a market and an oil field in South Sudan, killing at least two people hours after Sudanese ground forces reportedly crossed into South Sudan with tanks and artillery, elevating the risk of all-out war between the two old enemies.
The international community urged Sudan and South Sudan to talk out their disputes, which include arguments over where the border lies and over ownership of oil resources.
The bombs fell from two MiG 29 jets onto Rubkona’s market with a whistling sound, turning stalls where food and other household items are sold into fiery heaps of twisted metal. The burned body of the boy lay flat on his back near the center of the blast site, his hand clutching at the sky.
South Sudan military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said two were killed in that attack and nine wounded.
Aguer said Antonov bombers accompanied by MiG 29 jets also bombed Abiemnom in Unity State and the Unity State oil field. He said Abiemnom is a two-hour drive from Rubkona. Amid poor communications, the extent of damage at the oil field was not immediately known, nor whether there were casualties. Fighting between ground troops, which started Sunday, was still ongoing in Panakuac, Laloba and Teshwin, Aguer said.
In Rubkona, trucks packed with South Sudanese troops sped off in the direction where the bombs landed as the soldiers fired at the Sudanese jets.
“The bombing amounts to a declaration of war,” said Maj. Gen. Mac Paul, the Deputy Director of Military Intelligence for South Sudan.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday the U.S. strongly condemns Sudan’s military incursion into South Sudan, and called for the immediate halt of aerial and artillery bombardment in South Sudan.
“We recognize the right of South Sudan to self-defense and urge South Sudan to exercise restraint in its reaction to Sudan’s attack in Unity State,” she said.
Sudanese armed forces launched an attack Sunday more than six miles (nine kilometers) inside South Sudan’s border, even though the south announced on Friday it was pulling its troops from the disputed oil town of Heglig to avoid an all-out war. South Sudan had invaded Heglig earlier this month, saying it belonged to the south.
Sudan President Omar al-Bashir visited Heglig on Monday to inspect the damage, according to the official Sudanese news agency. Sudan claims its forces liberated the town from South Sudan. Al-Bashir has vowed to teach his southern neighbors a lesson.
Paul said two MiG 29 jets belonging to Sudan dropped three bombs on Monday, two of which landed near a bridge that connects Bentiu, the capital of Unity State and Rubkona, another town.
It was not the first time Sudan has targeted the bridge between Bentiu and Rubkona. Two Sukhoi fighters dropped bombs within 100 meters (yards) of the same bridge earlier this month.
Sudan and South Sudan, the world’s newest country, have been drawing closer to war in recent months over the sharing of oil revenues and a disputed border.
On Saturday night, a Muslim mob burned a Catholic church in Sudan frequented mostly by South Sudanese. The church in Khartoum’s Al-Jiraif district was built on a disputed plot of land, but the attack appeared to be part of the fallout from ongoing hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan.
Paul said late Sunday that South Sudan is building up its forces because they think Sudan is also doing the same.
The international community, led by the U.S., has called for the two countries to stop all military actions against each other and restart negotiations to solve their disputes.
President Barack Obama on Friday asked the presidents of Sudan and South Sudan to resume negotiations and said that conflict is not inevitable.
African Union-mediated talks between the two countries recently broke down in Ethiopia. The African Union on Sunday called on Sudan and South Sudan to end “senseless fighting.”
The European Union in a statement on Monday also urged Sudan and South Sudan to end their armed confrontation and negotiate. The EU welcomed South Sudan’s decision to withdraw its troops from neighboring Sudan’s oil-rich town of Heglig and warned the government not to mount any more attacks.
It also called on Sudan to refrain from attacking the withdrawing forces and cease aerial bombardment of South Sudan.
South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July last year after an independence vote, the culmination of a 2005 peace treaty that ended decades of war that killed more than 2 million people.
Associated Press writer Mohamed Saeed in Khartoum, Sudan contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/sudan-president-threatens-south-sudan-government-163319599.html
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