Over 45 people killed in Upper Nile’s clashes
March 13, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – At least 49 people are reported to have been killed and 14 others injured in an armed confrontation between the Southern Army (SPLA) and a rebel group in Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile state in South Sudan.
The armed group, led by a militia commander known as Oliny, is allegedly loyal to opposition party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement for Democratic Change, SPLM-DC. It has also been claimed that Oliny is in league with renegade General George Athor Deng who rebelled against the South Sudan government after he lost a bid to become governor of Jonglei state.
In the recent past, armed elements loyal to Athor have clashed several times with forces belonging to the SPLA since he rebelled, resulting in scores of deaths on both sides.
The SPLM-DC, led by former Sudanese foreign affairs minister Lam Akol, split from South Sudan’s ruling party the SPLM in June 2009. Akol was one of the senior SPLM members appointed in 2005 to serve in the government of national unity after a peace deal between north and south ended decades of conflict.
Akol was later removed from his post, with the SPLM accusing him of being too close to the Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party.
Saturday’s fighting, which broke out at 3:00am and continued until 6:00pm (local time), took place predominantly around Malakal airport and army barracks.
Peter Lam Both, minister of information in the government of Upper Nile state on Sunday, said in a statement that 44 members of the militia group were killed as well as one SPLA soldier and four other policemen.
Seven SPLA soldiers and nine policemen were injured and were rushed to the Malakal hospital, Both said.
The minister said that the attackers were dislodged from Malakal and chased towards northern Upper Nile. Both claimed that some of those killed wore t-shirts with the SPLM-DC written on them and those caught have confessed they were loyal to Akol and Oliny.
The minister said he regretted the loss of life and damage to property and repeated the South’s claim that the militias were backed by Khartoum and the ruling NCP, saying their objective is to destabilize the South.
The NCP denied that they are aiding the southern rebel movements.
South Sudan is due to become independent in July following a referendum in favour of separation earlier this year. The plebiscite was agreed in a 2005 peace deal between the SPLM and NCP, which ended decades of conflict.
SPLA spokesperson, Phillip Panyang Aguer, said that one of the captured militia members held the rank of Lt. Colonel in the Southern army and had been a bodyguard to a senior wildlife official.
Attempts made by Sudan Tribune to reach Akol and his Secretary General Sandra Bona Malual, both on Saturday and Sunday failed.
ORPHAN HOSTAGES
Upper Nile minister Both said that during Saturday’s fighting the militia entered the compound of an orphanage and took some of the children hostage. The children were released, he said, after the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) negotiated their release.
“We agreed with the hostage takers that once the children are released, the UN would take them and eventually release them,” he said.
However, “instead of going with the UN forces, these 4 people decided to open fire on the UN and SPLA Forces. As the result, fighting ensued and in the end, 4 of them were killed in the battle. It is unfortunate to report that the building is now razed to the ground as the result of fighting.”
The attackers, he added, entered Upper Nile University and mixed with students at the institution, making it hard for the army to pursue them.
A few days earlier Oliny clashed with SPLA forces in Shilluk villages outside the state capital.
With southern secesion due in July, analysts say these recent waves of fighting witnessed in Abyei, Jonglei and Malakal casts doubt over the stability of the soon-to-be independent region.
Malakal town, Both said, returned to normal on Sunday with most shops reopening.
(ST)