Khartoum lodges complaint to UN on South Sudan’s “aggression”
March 4, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s permanent envoy to the United Nations (UN), Daffa Allah Ali al-Haj, has officially submitted a complaint to the UN Security Council (UNSC) containing details of an alleged military assault by neighbouring South Sudan.
The new complaint accuses South Sudan’s army, known as the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), of supporting and participating in an attack on 26 February by a coalition of Sudanese rebels groups, the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), on the disputed area of Jau, which lies on the poorly defined borders between the two countries.
South Sudan denied any links to the attack and the rebels also said that Juba were not involved. The SRF said the attack was carried jointly by two of its factions, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N), which shares historical ties with South Sudan’s ruling party, and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) from the western region of Darfur.
Besides JEM and SPLM-N, the SRF is formed of two factions of the Darfur rebels Sudan People’s Liberation Movement led by Abdel Wahid Nur (SPLM-AW) and Manni Arkoi Minawi (SPLM-MM). The SRF is seeking to topple the Sudanese government, citing shared grievances of neglect in their regions.
According to Sudan’s official news agency, SUNA, the complaint stated that the attack was launched from the territories of South Sudan, whose military forces facilitated the movement and transportation of the rebels to the area of assault.
The complaint mentioned the fact that the attack took place less than two weeks since Khartoum and Juba signed an agreement of non-aggression in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, saying that the alleged aggression breached the deal.
The complaint also asserted that there is no dispute over Jau which it claimed belongs to Sudan and lies within South Kordofan State.
Khartoum’s complaint concluded that the Sudanese government had been maintaining self-restraint in the face of “continuous aggression” by South Sudan and asked the UNSC to demand that Juba ceases its support to the rebels.
Sudan and South Sudan have been exchanging accusations of supporting each others’ rebels since the South seceded in July last year under a peace deal that ended nearly half a century of north-south civil wars in the formerly united country.
The recently separated countries are also stuck in disputes over an array of post-secession issues, including oil.
(ST)