New Sudan clashes as battle rages after North attacks South oil fields

JUBA, Tuesday

South Sudan on Tuesday accused Sudanese air force of escalating a series of aerial bombardments that started on Monday.

A Sudanese plane dropped rounds of bombs in two locations in the oil-rich Unity state this morning despite UN calls for calm, officials said.

“This morning again, they have already started with their aerial bombardment north of Bentiu at a junction between Rubkona and Mayom County,” Unity state information minister Gideon Gatpan Thoar said, referring to two localities next to the state capital Bentiu.

“Most of their bombardment is based on oil fields, the main production areas,” he added.

A local official on the ground confirmed the bombings, saying civilians were desperately running to seek shelter from the bombs.

Mr Gideon said the magnitude of the damages caused hasn’t been assessed yet. “We have not received any report yet on any damage on the oil infrastructure,” he said.

Sudan Armed Forces spokesman Al-Sawarmi Khalid has denied the bombings. “No, it is their army with rebels attacked us,” Mr Khalid said.

The alleged bombing is an extension of a deadly clash between armies of the two states that broke out on Monday.

South Sudan said its forces repulsed a ground attack on her bases and in response overran Sudanese army posts, eventually taking over control of the disputed oil-rich border town of Heglig.

President Salva Kiir said it was a war imposed on his country.

Bashir has reportedly cancelled a visit to South Sudan scheduled for April 3 to formally sign previous agreements reached between the two delegations in Addis Ababa.

“After a day of attacks by air and ground troops on Monday, this morning we heard the Antonov (aircraft) return, and dropped two bombs,” said Gideon Gatpan, information minister for South Sudan’s Unity state.

“We believe the airstrikes were targeting the oil fields,” said Gatpan, adding the bombs, which landed some 35 kilometres from the state capital Bentiu, were not believed to have caused casualties or damage to oil infrastructure.

On Monday, President Kiir said his troops had driven northern forces back across the undemarcated border and seized Khartoum’s Heglig oil field, parts of which are claimed by both sides.

Following the fighting UN chief Ban Ki-Moon has appealed for calm between the former civil war foes. (READ: UN calls for calm in Sudan after clashes)

Mr Ban called on the two countries to end the clashes and respect the agreements on border security they had already reached.

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.

Khartoum threatened retaliation in February and early March after accusing the South of backing rebel attacks in disputed border areas, amidst a furious dispute over oil transit fees with Juba.

Rebel forces that both Juba and Khartoum accuse as being backed by the other were also reported to have joined in the battle on Monday.

Khartoum’s army spokesman accused rebels of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) from Sudan’s western Darfur region of joining in the fight to target Sudanese troops, claims the rebels denied.

In addition, Southern rebels — from the South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA), a militia force Juba claims is armed by Khartoum — said they had taken part to attack Southern troops, boasting that they had killed several.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, the UNHCR warned on Tuesday that the lives of over 16,000 Sudanese refugees were at risk as Khartoum bombarded South Sudan’s oil-rich border areas.

“UNHCR considers that Yida refugee settlement is not safe for long-term stay due to its proximity to the volatile border zone,” said Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

“We consider that refugees’ lives are at stake, so we do urge them to move.”

The group of Sudanese refugees from the Nuba Mountains had fled across their country’s borders to settle in the Yida camp, located in South Sudan’s Unity state.

The UNHCR has been urging them to move amid repeatedly shelling in the volatile border zone since last year, but the refugees have refused, saying they prefer to remain close to their hometown.