UN says security situations in southern Sudan under control
Mar 22, 2006 (Xinhua) — The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said here Wednesday that security situation in southern Sudan were well under control despite of some incidents.
UNMIS Force Commander Lieutenant General Jasbir Singh Lidder told a press conference that the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) ruling the south were committed, to a great extent, to the ceasefire agreement which the two sides had signed.
He, meanwhile, noted that some incidents of ceasefire violations took place during the recent period, blaming the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels operating in southern Sudan as well as local militant looters for most of the incidents.
“The attacks are creating an uncertain situation for the humanitarian and other relief works,” the UN officer said, adding that his troops were taking suitable and immediate measures to insure that the situations will return to calm as soon as possible.
On Saturday night, a UN post was attacked by a group of armed men in Yambio near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Two peacekeepers from Bangladesh were wounded and three of the gunmen were killed in the attack.
Initial investigations indicated that the attackers were attempting to rob communications equipment in the incident, which occurred just past midnight on Saturday and ended soon after local Sudanese troops reached the scene.
Last Wednesday, a local guard was killed, a staff member and a second local guard seriously wounded when two gunmen attacked a UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) compound in Yei, forcing the suspension of the planned repatriation of the Sudanese who fled to the civil war.
UNMIS, which is authorized to field up to 10,000 personnel to support implementation of last year’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Sudanese government and southern rebels, currently has some 7800 peacekeepers on the ground, including troops and observers.
(Xinhua/ST)