“Hundreds dead” in Sudan border battles
Clashes in Sudan have rekindled since South Sudan’s independence in July. A member of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army poses in the countryside on Jan. 15, 2011, in Yambio, South Sudan.
The divorce of the two Sudan’s is, as predicted, proving a messy business.
Since South Sudan’s independence in July fighting has rekindled in Darfur, continued in Southern Kordofan and Abyei, broken out in Blue Nile and erupted sporadically in Unity and Jonglei.
On Monday the northern governor of the oil-producing state of Southern Kordofan said that Khartoum’s army had killed “hundreds” of rebels from the SPLM-North, a political-military group that is pressing for greater freedoms and representation in Sudan.
“Several hundred members of the [SPLM-North] were killed this day in an assault on the city of Teludi that was repelled by the armed forces,” said Ahmed Haroun, a close ally of President Omar al-Bashir who, like his boss, is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The SPLM-North rejected the claims countering that it had in fact killed hundreds of government troops.
Whatever the truth behind the claims and counter-claims there seems no end in sight for the series of civil conflicts that roil Sudan.