South Sudan army says tribesmen resume attacks
January 4, 2007 (JUBA, Sudan) — Fresh fighting erupted between southern Sudanese forces and Arab tribesmen near key oil areas of the country Friday, former southern rebels said, further denting hopes of an end to north-south hostilities.
Dozens of people have been reported killed since fighting first erupted late last month near the disputed Abyei oil areas between Arab tribesman and ex-rebel south Sudanese army units.
“They have attacked again,” Major General Mai Hoth, deputy chief of the southern former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army, told AFP. “They attacked late in the night, and the fighting is still going on.”
Clashes had first erupted in December when tribesman, backed by militiamen, attacked a southern army garrison, the former rebels said, although the tribesmen say they were bombarded first.
Hoth charged on Wednesday that Khartoum had missed a new deadline to withdraw its troops from south Sudan, breaching a deal that saw the former rebels rejoin the national government last week after a two-month boycott.
The violence has erupted shortly before the third anniversary of the signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement on January 9, 2005 that ended 21 years of north-south conflict in Sudan, Africa’s longest-running civil war.
An estimated two million people were killed and another six million displaced in the two-decade-long conflict.
Khartoum’s promise to pull northern troops out of the southern autonomous region by the end of 2007 was part of an agreement that paved the way for the former rebels to rejoin the national unity government on December 27.
Its failure to meet an earlier deadline for the pullout was one of the key reasons cited by the former rebels for quitting the government.
Under the CPA, which created a southern autonomous government and two separate armies, northern troops should have withdrawn from the south by July 9, 2007.
However, the north had only moved two-thirds of its forces by then, according to the United Nations, setting off a protracted war of words that culminated in the south recalling its ministers in October.
The north has in the past argued that its army needed to remain in the south to protect the country’s oil wealth, 80 percent of which is concentrated in the area.
Under the CPA, the two sides should have formed a joint north-south force to patrol the oil areas, but the force was not fully operational by the time the south pulled out of government.
(AFP)
Buong Deng
South Sudan army says tribesmen resume attacks
Omar Bashir with has army will always cause trouble in Southern Sudan, this is something we they southerners are not suprise.I’m positive that South army will defeat the Evil Omar malitiasmen and SAF.
SPLA Oyeeee, John Garang Oyeeeee long live SPLA
Manyang
South Sudan army says tribesmen resume attacks
South Sudanese are tired of your complaints
I am really suprised now adays of what our victotious SPLM/A had turned out to be. Our freedom fighters had turned out to be the underdogs of the fundamentalist militias of the NIF.
My message to SPLM/A leadership is that, CPA will not be of any good to south sudanese if it continued in it current phase. It is clear now from NIF’s political and military moves that CPA is not a valid document in its perspective. SPLM/A had become a prisoner of the CPA and NCP is doing all what is it power to abrogate the agreement. It is a matter of time and marginalized people of the sudan will act if their leaders fail to. You cannot dig somebody’s grave and expect him/her to sit idle. NCP is digging the grave for burying the sudanese people’s achievements enshrined in the CPA.
It is really surprising to hear somebody like Major general Hoth Mai playing down an attack on SPLA base in Abyei area. It is now three months since infamous Bashir called his Popular Defence Force to reopen their training camps. Mr Major general Hoth and others in the SPLA, the attack on our freedom fighters in Abyei was not carried out by Arab tribemen as some might think. There is no tribe in the sudan that has a capacity to attack a well organized army like SPLA on a daily base. In addition, CPA had spelt it out clearly that no other armed groups (OAGS)should be permitted to operate.
I am now dumb founded, what SPLM is going to do next, given the fact that NCP had missed another deadline to with draw its forces from the south. Instead of withdrawing NCP had given greenlight to its proxy militias to start offensive in Abyei and other areas such as Jonglei state.
SPLA must prepare for such attacks and not playing them down. NCP’s militias are in training in various places as their boss told them. Also, be informed terrorists who had sacrifices their lives had joined the training. You are all aware of what happened recently in Pakistan. My leaders be prepared for any worst scenario.
By:
Manyang P. Deng
Can be reached at