Fierce battles erupt at key town in Sudan’s South Kordofan state
March 30, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on Friday clashed with rebels from the Sudan People Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) as the latter made a fresh attempt to control a key town in South Kordofan State.
Today SPLM-N made an attempt to occupy Teludi which according to SAF spokesperson al-Sawarmi Khalid Sa’ad started at 7am with “random” artillery attacks killing an unspecified number of women and children.
Sa’ad said that SAF inflicted heavy losses in terms of lives and equipment in the battles that lasted until 6pm. Two T-55 tanks and a large number of small weapons and machine guns were seized in the process.
The military spokesperson said that the assailants fled and started regrouping at another site for a new attack.
A source inside Teludi told Sudan Tribune today that SPLM-N briefly entered Teludi but were pushed back later in the evening.
The SPLM-N has made a number of attempts to capture Teludi since the conflict in South Kordofan broke out in June last year. Several villages around Teludi were attacked by the rebels but the town remained under control of government forces.
“The SPLA-N will continue its siege of Teludi until it is liberated,” a rebel spokesman said.
On Wednesday, South Kordofan Governor Ahmed Haroun said in a radio interview that SAF ejected the SPLM-N from Um Dual village and are working to clear the areas surrounding Teludi.
On another front, Sa’ad said that South Sudan’s People Liberation Army (SPLA) along with fighters from the Darfur-based Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) are amassing troops at the border south of Heglig on South Kordofan’s border with South Sudan.
“The goal is to attack the Heglig area another time,” Sa’ad said.
This week SAF and SPLA fought around the oil-rich region of Heglig with South Sudan president Salva Kiir announcing that they had taken control of it in the course of repulsing Khartoum’s aerial and ground attack inside South Sudan’s Unity state.
But Kiir’s assertions regarding Heglig were contradicted by SPLA field commanders and later South Sudan’s army announced that it has disengaged and returned to its old positions inside the country’s borders.
Haroun accused South Sudan’s Kiir of having expansionist intentions, malice and hatred towards Sudan describing him as a snake in the ladder game, but said the poison will turn against him in the end.
The Heglig field is key to Sudan’s economy because it produces around half of the country’s oil output of 115,000 barrels a day.
The field was awarded to Sudan by the Permanent Arbitration Court in 2009 but some southern officials have laid claim on it.
This week’s battles led to the suspension of a long-awaited summit between Kiir and his Sudanese counterpart Omer Hassan al-Bashir set for 3 April.
ADDIS TALKS
Delegations from Khartoum and Juba have convened in Addis Ababa for talks on security issues.
The SPLM Secretary General and South Sudan’s top negotiator Pagan Amum has arrived in the Ethiopian capital for negotiations that will deal mainly with Juba’s alleged support to northern rebels.
On Wednesday, military delegations from the two countries met at the experts level to prepare for the joint political-security meeting led by defense ministers from Khartoum and Juba.
Sources told Sudan Tribune that the meetings were suspended for a few hours after South Sudan’s delegation refused to acknowledge their backing to the rebels stressing they don’t have the mandate to make a decision on this.
(ST)