Rebel forces expel Sudanese army from Blue Nile’s Mafo area
February 20, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Rebels from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) say they have expelled the Sudanese army (SAF) from Mafo in the restive Blue Nile state, two days after government forces claimed to have recaptured the area after launching a series of aerial and ground attacks.
In comments made to Sudan’s official news agency (SUNA) on 18 February, army spokesperson Colonel Al-Sawarmi Khalid Sa’ad said his forces had liberated Mafo, which lies in the state’s south-west, adding SPLM-N rebels had suffered large losses including 66 fighters, four tanks, four Land Cruiser vehicles and two tractors.
The claims were later denied by the SPLM-N, who described them as “misleading” and “media propaganda”, adding 86 Sudanese soldiers had been killed and many more wounded during the latest fighting.
In a statement issued on Wednesday and extended to Sudan Tribune, SPLM-N’s official spokesman Arnu Ngutulu Lodi said rebels had repulsed government forces in the area after a fierce battle lasting 24 hours.
He said government forces had been driven back to Kurmuk, 21kms away, where fighting is continuing on the city outskirts, adding that heavy bombardments around the clock across the entire southern region had caused further displacements.
The SAF confirmed its troops had quit Mafo but were preparing to recapture it as soon as possible.
In a statement, the SAF said it had inflicted “heavy losses of the rebels who attacked the [Mafo] area”, but denied allegations that fighting had flared near Kurmuk, which is held by Janjaweed militias brought from Darfur.
He said the attacking forces were composed of soldiers from the South Sudanese army (SPLA) and elements of the northern rebellion movement, backed by white mercenaries who were driving tanks and wearing bullet-proof jackets.
The latest development comes after earlier comments from Blue Niles deputy governor, Adam Abakr Ismail, who said on Wednesday that the SAF victory in Mafo had “killed” the rebels and put them in a corner after cutting off their supply routes from South Sudan’s army.
Lodi has accused the Sudanese government of making false claims to divert attention from political and humanitarian issues in Blue Nile, as well as to “agitate and undermine” proposed peace talks in Addis Ababa on 5 March.
Blue Nile’s south-western region is the most populated of the state’s rural areas and is rich in minerals.
In a statement last Sunday, SPLM-N secretary-general Yasser Arman said sustained attacks by Sudanese troops in Mafo since 14 February had displaced about 8,000 to civilians, who have been forced to flee closer to the Ethiopian and South Sudanese border.
Despite the latest instability and tit-for-tat trade of accusations, Lodi reiterated SPLM-N’s calls for the cessation of hostilities for humanitarian purposes and the opening of safe corridors so aid could be delivered to civilians in need on both sides of the conflict.
The conflict in Blue Nile started in September 2011, a few months after neighbouring South Sudan seceded under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war. A few months earlier a similar conflict broke out in South Kordofan which also lies on the borders with South Sudan.
Both sides signed a peace deal on 27 September 2012, but implementation of its conditions, including a demilitarised zone along the border, have stalled amid ongoing aggression between the two sides and reports of troop build-ups on the border.
The SPLM-N fought as part of the Southern rebel army during its war with the north, but was left on the Sudanese side of the border after partition.
Khartoum accuses Juba of backing the rebels and says a number of deals they signed last year, including one on Southern oil exports, cannot go forward until the South severs its alleged ties with the group.
(ST)