Sudan army says Blue Nile’s gunfire “accidental”
September 6, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sounds of firefight were heard on Tuesday evening in the capital of Sudan’s southern state of Blue Nile, a resident said; prompting the country’s army to downplay the events as accidental.
The source added that the city’s power supply had been cut.
The Blue Nile state on 1 September joined the list of Sudan’s flashpoints along with the state of South Kordofan and the western region of Darfur, when fighting erupted there between Sudan’s army (SAF) and forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) led by the state’s governor Malik Agar.
Both sides accused each other of starting the fighting. Sudan’s President Omer Al-Bashir later declared a state of emergency in the state and sacked Agar, appointing an interim military ruler in his place.
According to SAF’s spokesperson, Alsoarmi Khaled Saad, the gunfire heard in Al-Damazin occurred when one SAF member “accidentally” opened fire which caused panic among the citizens.
The army spokesman added that no casualties resulted from the shooting. “These kinds of incidents tend to occur in military areas. There is no cause of concern.”
Blue Nile State and its nearby South Kordofan State lie on the borders with the newly established state of South Sudan. Their population largely sided with the south during the years of Sudan’s second civil wars which ended in 2005 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
Under the security arrangement protocol of the CPA, which concluded with South Sudan’s secession in July this year, the SPLM-N – which is the former northern branch of the ruling party in South Sudan – was supposed to disarm its forces and integrate them into the Sudanese army.
However that process stalled along with the CPA-mandated popular consultation vote to gauge local views on the implementation of the agreement, setting the stage for what has now become a full-scale war in the rump of the country between the government in Khartoum and SPLM-N.
Sudan security services banned the SPLM-N and shuttered its offices in the north. President al-Bashir vowed this week to crush any rebel military attack in Blue Nile and South Kordofan.
(ST)