Sudan criticises Uganda’s remarks on fighting alongside South Sudan
April 21, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government is working on a diplomatic response to statements made by Uganda this week in which it suggested that it will send troops to protect Juba should Sudan’s army attack.
This was in the wake of Juba’s occupation of Heglig area in South Kordofan last week. On Friday Sudan’s army managed to take it back in what Juba says was an orderly withdrawal on the part of their troops.
But Uganda hinted that it would back South Sudan militarily in any possible invasion by Khartoum.
“We will not sit by and do nothing. We will be involved having suffered a proxy war by Khartoum,” the Daily Monitor quoted General Aronda Nyakairima, Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), as saying.
“Our people in northern Uganda suffered and intelligence information also indicates that the LRA, who have an estimated 200 guns, are again in contact with Khartoum,” Nyakairima said.
A government source in Khartoum told Sudan Tribune that Nyakairima’s statements is a direct incitement to destabilise the security and stability in the region.
He stressed that Khartoum does not support the LRA and noted that the country no longer shares a border with Uganda following South Sudan’s independence.
The official did not rule out summoning the Ugandan ambassador to query him on these statements.
He said that it is not a surprise for such a stance to come out of Kampala saying the East African nation has always been hostile to Sudan.
Uganda has accused the Khartoum government in the past of supporting the LRA, which now roams a remote jungle straddling Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(ST)