5 Sudanese soldiers killed in revenge attack by Southerners

March 12, 2008 (JUBA) — Five soldiers from the northern Sudan army have been shot dead in a revenge attack by a group of townspeople in south Sudan, an army officer said on Wednesday.

The killed soldiers belonged to one of the new Joint Integrated Units made up of both northern and southern troops and formed by a 2005 peace deal that ended more than 20 years of civil war between the north and south.

According to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, soldiers from the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) form Joint Integrated Units were they supposed to train and live together in southern towns like Kapoeta in order to form the nucleus of the future national army.

Despite Juba effort to disarm the population in the ten states, weapons remain in the hands of civilians and many areas have not been fully disarmed.

The killings were in retaliation for the stabbing of a man in the small town of Kapoeta in Eastern Equatoria State bordering Kenya, said Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) Major General James Hoth.

“(On Tuesday) evening two (SAF) soldiers … had a quarrel with a civilian and killed (him) with a knife,” said Hoth. Armed civilians in the town then mobilised, ambushed a group of the northern soldiers and shot five, he added.

“Of course (here) they are not mixed,” Hoth said, adding a number of Kapoeta residents had been arrested after the attack.

(ST)

Information for this report provided by Reuters