Sudan battle rages at border area

JUBA, Sunday

Sudan Armed Forces locked horns with southern troops at a new battle front along the border today, officials said, placing the two former foes in an awkward position that could easily lead them into an all-out war.

The SAF attacked police posts at Kuek area in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state, overran them and eventually took over a momentary control, army spokesman Col Philip Aguer said.

Col Aguer said the police forces that were based in Kuek were pushed south wards into Panyikang County in the Shiluk Kingdom.

“They displaced the police. They chased away the police which was at the borders. They invaded the area and the SPLA will definitely handle the situation,” Col Aguer said.

“Antonovs are hovering over Bentiu but they have not yet dropped bombs,” he said in reference to aerial raid in the neighboring oil-rich Unity state which has been the scene of most air attacks.

At least five were killed on Saturday when a bomb landed in a market in Bentiu, the capital of Unity state.

Upper Nile state Government Simon Kun Puoch said the invading troops were a combination of two militia forces and the SAF.

Mr Kun said the police pulled back shortly before staging a repulsive attack that later pushed the SAF out of the area.

“SPLA forces came and they were pushed back again,” Mr Kun said, refering the SAF and the associated militia forces. He said the SAF was “shelling Kuek from all directions”.

SAF was not immediately reached for a comment. But previously, they had vowed to fight back with a heavy force.

The hostilities between the two countries, which separated last July after two decades of bloody war, started last week with South Sudan taking over the border town of Heglig in response to continued aerial bombardment and ground attacks.

Heglig, which South Sudan claims is its own according to the 1956 colonial maps, produced about half of Sudan’s crude oil since the split.

Southern troops seized the region and shut down oil production, depriving Khartoum of the cash it badly needs to salvage its deteriorating economy.

The African Union and the United Nations have repeatedly called for restraint.

Meanwhile, the first batch of Sudanese prisoners of war captured in days of bloody fighting arrived in the South Sudanese capital today, as the South’s army said clashes continued in contested border regions.

“We are respecting the international laws on war,” South Sudanese army spokesman Philip Aguer told reporters, adding the prisoners were captured in the contested Heglig oil field.

“We are going to liaise with the Red Cross to see if they are willing to facilitate their return home,” Mr Aguer said, adding that while Southern troops were holding other prisoners of war, he did not have details at present of how many.

Mr Aguer said the South’s army remained in control of Heglig, despite a counter-attack launched by the Sudan Armed Forces.

On Saturday, Khartoum army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad said Sudanese troops were within kilometres of the main town in Heglig.

The 14 Sudanese soldiers arrived by airplane in Juba, looking exhausted but apparently well fed and in good spirits, with those wounded in battle having received medical treatment, according to an AFP reporter.

Several had fresh bandages over bullet wounds, others were carried on stretchers.

Captured Sudanese medical officer, Lieutenant Khalid Hassan Ahmed, appeared tired but smiled as he arrived.

“Things are OK... I was brought to treat wounded people where there was fighting, but then we were captured last Tuesday during the attack,” he said.

“I was forced to come to fight (for the Sudanese army), I have two bullets in my leg,” said Moror Malik, another prisoner.

Some two million people died in Sudan’s 1983-2005 civil war, one of Africa’s longest, before the peace deal opened the way to South Sudan’s independence.