Fighting in south Sudan kills at least 15
July 22, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — At least 15 people have been killed in sectarian fighting in south Sudan which is likely to escalate, military sources said on Saturday, describing a threat to a hard-won peace deal that ended Africa’s longest civil war.
The sources differed in their accounts, but two versions pointed to violence against north Sudanese by southerners in the last few days, in response to an attack on a militia allied to south Sudan’s army.
The Khartoum government and the former southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed a peace deal last year, ending more than two decades of north-south civil war which claimed 2 million lives.
Both sides used proxy militias, which under last year’s deal were to have joined either the north’s Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) or the south’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).
“There was an incident in Rubkona. It involved one soldier from the SAF who shot one officer and civilians. The officer belonged to the South Sudan Defence Force (SSDF). They have joined the SPLA,” Major General Elias Waya of the SPLA said.
“There was a retaliation from the civilians which resulted in 23 killed … They were northern traders. I don’t know what motivated the incident. Now the situation is under control but I think there will be a retaliation from the north,” he added.
Rubkona is in south Sudan’s Unity state, which contains some of the country’s largest oil fields. Disputes over whether oil-rich regions nearby lie in north or south Sudan have raised tension and left some areas without state services or aid.
Analysts say the dispute threatens to derail last year’s peace deal and could trigger renewed violence.
An SAF spokesman denied a government soldier began the incident, and instead said it started with a fight between two factions of the SPLA. Two SAF soldiers had been killed trying to end the violence, in which 13 civilians died, he said.
In another account, Major General Samule Machar, a former SSDF commander, said 28 people were killed, including 18 civilians, after an SAF soldier attacked one of his soldiers, triggering a clash between his forces and the SAF.
(Reuters)