Clashes kill dozens on Sudan north-south border
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's former southern rebels on Saturday accused their northern partners of attacking them for the second time in a week in clashes which claimed dozens in the volatile north-south border region.
A 2005 peace deal ended Africa's longest civil war in Sudan's south but the road of peace has been rocky with both sides accusing the other of violations and slow implementation of the accord which enshrines democratic transformation, power and wealth-sharing and a southern vote on independence by 2011.
"There was a massing of militias...and Sudanese armed forces and they attacked (civilian) areas in Bahr el-Ghazal," Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) member of parliament for the area Garang Jiel Akwar told Reuters.
He said the attack on Saturday killed 28 civilians, adding the SPLM's military wing, the SPLA, had engaged the militias supported by local elements of the army to protect the citizens.
Sudan's Armed Forces denied any role and said they did not have details of the clashes, which they said was between the SPLA and the nomadic Misseriya tribe.
A Misseriya leader, Abdel Jalil Reefa, told Reuters tens of thousands of SPLA troops had attacked them, killing up to 27 people and injuring 13. He said they had killed around 90 SPLA soldiers.
"The situation is very dangerous ... and we are calling for everyone to go to... a reconciliation conference," he added.
Clashes earlier this week in the remote area between the Misseriya and the SPLA also killed dozens.
The cattle-herding Misseriya were among nomadic tribes armed by various northern governments during the civil war to help the war effort in south Sudan. Many were not disarmed after the peace deal.
Sudan's north-south civil war claimed 2 million lives and drove 4 million from their homes. It broadly pit the Islamist Khartoum government against mainly Christian and animist rebels, complicated by issues of oil, ethnicity and ideology.
The conflict has been largely overshadowed by a newer conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region, sparking the world's largest humanitarian operation giving aid to some 4 million people.
In Darfur on Saturday the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said it had taken control of the town of Suleia in West Darfur.
"Today we have taken control of Suleia town and have defeated the Sudanese army there," JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim told Reuters from Darfur.
The Sudanese army said it had no information on the claim, which could not immediately be confirmed.
