Boat collision kills at least 50 south Sudan soldiers

Oct 19, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — At least 50 soldiers from the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army drowned in southern Sudan after two steamboats collided on the Nile, state media and a southern official said on Thursday.

The state-owned SUNA news agency said 50 troops drowned in the accident on Wednesday night as they were being transported from the southern Malakal town to their new base along the river.

A southern Sudan official said the toll was as high as 75.

“There were two diesel steamers and they crashed,” said Joseph Dut, a member of the former southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

“One was carrying around 109 soldiers and we are hearing that up to 75 of those drowned immediately,” he added.

After more than two decades of bitter civil war which claimed 2 million lives, the SPLM signed a peace deal in January 2005 with the Khartoum government. A coalition government was formed and an autonomous southern regional authority.

Under the deal, all militias were to join the SPLM’s armed wing (the SPLA) or the national Sudanese Armed Forces. The SAF are in the process of withdrawing from the south and the SPLA from areas it controlled in the north under the deal.

During the war, river traffic was subjected to gunfire or taxes from militias.

(Reuters)