Sudanese military planes reportedly bombed villages in South Sudan today, both escalating weeks of fighting on the border and ending hopes that Sudan would remove its troops from a contested region.
Initial reports indicate that the towns of Bentiu and Rubkona in South Sudan’s Unity state were the targets of the bombardment. The bombing came on the heels of the pullout of South Sudanese forces from the oil-rich Heglig area at the center of recent fighting at the request of the United Nations.
The African Union is expected to meet later this week to discuss how to ease tensions between the two nations. Relations have been mostly peaceful but tense since South Sudan became independent last July. Khartoum officially welcomed the secession of the South, but internal disputes in each country ”“ including the northern border states of Blue Nile, South Kordofan, and Abyei, and the southern state of Unity ”“ have turned bloody. Each side accuses the other of starting proxy wars in the other’s country. But at root of this conflict is the fact that ”œmany issues were left unresolved, including security, borders, citizenship and nationality, and oil transit fees,” the Sudan Tribune reports.
According to Agence France-Presse, the recent violence in Heglig is the worst since South Sudan became independent.
of earlier stories
http://agonist.org/20120418/preventing_full_scale_war_between_sudan_and_south_sudan
Always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart. ~ Phil Jackson
Bashir says South understands only language of “guns and bullets” amid reports of cross-border raids by his air force.
Al Jazeera, April 23
Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s president, has pledged not to negotiate with South Sudan amid reports of fresh air attacks on his country’s southern neighbour.
The renewed tensions come as South Sudan’s 10-day occupation of the oil town of Heglig has left parts of the town blood-soaked and in ruins.
“We will not negotiate with the South’s government, because they don’t understand anything but the language of the gun and ammunition,” Bashir told Sudanese troops at a barracks near an oilfield along the two neighbours’ contested border on Monday.
“Our talks with them were with guns and bullets.”
General Kamal Abdul Maarouf, a Sudanese army commander who led the battles in Heglig, said the army had killed 1,200 South Sudanese troops in fighting in the area, an account South Sudan denied.
An AFP news agency correspondent who accompanied Maarouf said he saw piles of corpses bearing South Sudanese military uniforms scattered beneath trees in the border region.
South Sudan’s army said 19 of its soldiers were killed and that 240 Sudanese troops lost their lives.
AP, April 24
Sudan continued with its aerial bombardment of South Sudan on Tuesday, dropping eight bombs overnight, an official said, as South Sudan’s president said the attacks amounted to a declaration of war by Sudan.
South Sudan’s military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said that Sudanese Antonovs dropped eight bombs overnight between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. in Panakuac, where he said ground fighting had been ongoing since Sunday. Aguer said he has not received information on whether there were casualties from the attack because of poor communications.
On Monday, Sudanese warplanes bombed a market and an oil field in South Sudan, killing at least two people after Sudanese ground forces had reportedly crossed into South Sudan with tanks and artillery.
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir on Tuesday during a visit to Beijing told China’s president that attacks by rival Sudan amount to a declaration of war on his country.
President Omar al-Bashir imposes trade embargo on South Sudan and suspends constitution in southern border region.
Al Jazeera, April 29
Sudan has declared a state of emergency along its border with South Sudan, in a move that imposes a trade embargo on the South and suspends the constitution, official news agency SUNA said.
President Omar al-Bashir issued a resolution on Sunday declaring the emergency in border districts of South Kordofan state, White Nile and Sennar states, it said.
The measure follows a month of border fighting with South Sudan, which separated last July after a peace deal ended one of Africa’s longest civil wars, which killed about two million people between 1983 and 2005.
An emergency has already been in effect for almost a decade in Darfur, along the western border with South Sudan, while a similar status took effect in Blue Nile state last September when an ethnic insurgency began.