South Sudan militia attacks SPLA in Malakal

Sudanese militia in southern Sudan Malakal attacked during last week SPLA positions in the town and provoked troubles in the area, reliable sources said the spectre of war looming in the region.

Sudan Tribune has learned that unknown armed militias started since a week attacks against the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) positions in the town.

The assailants after every attack go back to the garrison of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in Malakal, sources said.

Malakal, is the capital southern Sudan’s Upper Nile State. Upper Nile is potentially the main oil-producing region in Sudan.

The region, however, is largely secured not by the regular army, but by southern militias, predominantly Nuer, whose allegiance to Khartoum has been a source of much instability in Upper Nile, compared with other regions in southern Sudan.

The militias have had historic rivalries with the largest ethnic group in southern Sudan, the Dinka, and among themselves. The rivalries have, over the years of conflict, been exploited politically.