Malakal crisis is motivated by lust to control S. Sudan resources-SPLM
Dec 3, 2006 (JUBA) — The Sudan people’s Liberation Movement accused the ruling National Congress Party of sabotaging the Comprehensive Peace Agreement; saying Malakal crisis is motivated by the lust to control the South Sudan resources.
“The NCP is driven by greed and lust for the resources in Southern Sudan. It should know that its dream of re-occupying Southern Sudan is nothing but an unrealizable costly dream,” said a SPLM statement signed by the Secretary General Pagan Amum.
Malakal, is the capital southern Sudan’s Upper Nile State which is potentially the main oil-producing region in Sudan.
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.
In its first statement since fighting broke out on Monday in Malakal, the SPLM Secretary General, Amum Pagan, said Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) was out to dishonour the comprehensive Peace Agreement and prevent Southern Sudan from determining its destiny.
The fighting erupted on November 28, when the SAF supported SSDF militia attempted to assassinate the Commissioner of Malakal, Pagan said.
The militia, according to the SPLM, attacked the commissioner and some SPLA soldiers and took refuge in the Sudanese military barracks near the airport, sparking off the fight.
By the time the fighting ended on Friday with the intervention of the UN troops, about 300 people had been killed. The fighting was described as the heaviest between the government forces and the SPLA since they signed the peace deal last year. Pagan described the fighting as “a crisis”.
(ST)