Four rebels surrender in Unity state as landmine fears grow

By Bonifacio Taban Kuich

November 9, 2011 (BENTIU) — Authorities in Unity state have confirmed that four members of a rebel group in the oil producing area surrendered to the South Sudanese army (SPLA) on Wednesday.

Rubkotna county commissioner, Simon Jalduong Matuek, told Sudan Tribune that the four members of the South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA) had handed themselves in voluntarily and told authorities that the group was planning to lay landmines in the area.

According to Matuek, the men told the authorities that the SSLA had split into small groups with the intention of planting landmines around roads in the area. On Monday 7 November, a Toyota land cruiser hit a mine in Nhialdiu payam [district], killing one person and injuring another, the commissioner said.

A week earlier the SSLA attacked Nhialdiu Payam but had failed to take the town from the SPLA. Two SSLA soldiers were killed as they fled the area commissioner Matuek said.

When the SSLA rebels attacked the town of Mayom recently, local authorities said around 80 were killed, most of whom were rebels, according to the SPLA.

Matuek said the rebel group do not have many men and that their main threat is by laying landmines. He said that there were plans to position more soldiers along roads to counteract this.

Rubkotna’s commissioner added that the United Nations Mine Action Organization had been asked to return to Nhialdiu payam to clear the freshly laid mines. It was only two months ago the organisation had declared that roads leading to Tharjath and Nhialdiu were clear of mines.

South Sudan’s government has accused Khartoum government of supporting rebel groups in Unity state an other parts of newly the four month old country. Relatively new Chinese weapons have been seized from rebel groups in South Sudan, according to a Small Arms Survey report last month.

Khartoum has been repeatedly denied that they help any of South Sudan’s rebellions and in turn accuse the SPLA of arming rebels in the border areas of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, which are now in north Sudan but fought with the SPLA during the two-decade long civil war that led to southern independence.

(ST)

Photos of the seized weapons from South Sudan rebels.