UN evacuates staff after south Sudan clashes
Nov 30, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — Heavy fighting between Sudan’s army and former rebels in the south has forced the United Nations to evacuate staff.
The first sustained clashes between the two sides since a north-south peace deal last year caused U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to express deep concern and call for calm.
The former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Islamist Khartoum-based government signed a peace deal in January 2005 ending Africa’s longest civil which killed 2 million people and drove 4 million from their homes.
“These hostilities constitute a serious violation of the security arrangements of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement,” Annan said in a statement on Wednesday.
The United Nations has temporarily evacuated around 240 civilian staff from Malakal town close to the north-south border, U.N. officials in New York said. Annan said U.N. commanders along with a delegation of SPLA and Sudanese army officers were now in Malakal to calm the dispute.
The town was reported to be tense but quiet on Thursday.
Sudan’s southern press on Thursday reported at least a dozen were killed in the clashes which began three days ago. A source in Malakal said it was under curfew from 10 p.m. until dawn.
The South African Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Salva Kiir, the president of the government in southern Sudan, had cut short a visit to return to Sudan. Kiir had been on an official visit to South Africa since Tuesday.
While there have been small clashes between militias allied to both armies, this is the first sustained heavy fighting between the two sides since the 2005 peace deal was signed.
According to U.N. reports out of New York, Maj. Gen. Gabriel Tang of the northern Sudanese Armed Forces attacked two SPLA soldiers, killing one and injuring another. In turn, SPLA troops attacked Tang’s house and occupied it.
“At some points there was heavy exchange of fire,” U.N. spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said in Khartoum. She said it was not yet confirmed who was to blame for the ceasefire violation.
The peace deal formed separate north and south armies with joint armed units in main towns including Malakal. It also shared power and wealth between the north and south but implementation has been slow on key issues such as the demarcation of borders and ownership of the oil fields.
The Upper Nile region of Malakal is potentially one of the most oil-rich regions in Sudan, which produces at least 330,000 barrels per day of crude.
The United Nations has some 10,000 peacekeepers in the south to monitor the agreement and help train police and human rights workers and provide other services.
The southern conflict is separate from violence in the western region of Darfur, where U.N. peacekeepers are not permitted, and where an estimated 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million forced to flee their homes since 2003.
(Reuters)