Sudan warns newspapers against offending its ‘holy fighters’
May 30, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese 2nd Vice President al-Haj Adam Youssef warned today that his government will not allow newspapers or university activists to make any insults against its “mujahideen” (holy fighters).
Youssef’s remarks come days after Khartoum announced that it has recaptured South Kordofan area of Abu-Kershola from rebels belonging to Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) who took control of it in late April.
Around the same time, SRF briefly occupied North Kordofan’s second largest town of Um Rawaba taking the government and observers by surprise given the ease by which they overran it and the fact that it is outside the rebels normal operation zones that has been largely confined to South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur.
The government launched a fierce media and mobilization campaign vowing that they will now move to crush the rebels once and for all. It also accused SRF rebels of committing atrocities against civilians in Abu-Kershola.
Sudanese officials also claimed that some opposition parties have privately lauded the SRF widening military offensive hoping that it will push the government into collapsing.
The Sudanese 2nd VP speaking in Omdurman said that the rebels and the “fifth column” were jubilant when Abu-Kershola fell to SRF but that the Sudanese army is capable of chasing them to their “holes”.
He also claimed that rebels are receiving external help and pledged that the government will kick out the “fifth column” and send them to join the rebels.
South Kordofan governor Ahmed Haroun paid a visit to Abu-Kershola today and made statements afterwards asserting that rebels had a stunning defeat describing them as “agents and mercenaries from Darfur bandits along with militias from Kordofan and Blue Nile combined”.
He hailed the Sudanese army for defeating the rebels and vowed to continue the campaign until entire Kordofan and the country is “cleansed” from their presence.
(ST)