Fighting breaks out between Sudan army and SRF rebels in N. Kordofan

March 3, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese army on Sunday announced that its troops clashed this weekend with rebels from the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) in the state of North Kordofan.

The army’s spokesperson Colonel al-Sawarmi Khalid Sa’ad said in statements carried by state media that a group of SRF “outlaws” crossed the borders from South Sudan and were tracked by the Sudanese military.

Col, Sa’ad said that when the rebels passed by Wad Bahr village in Wad Banda locality in North Kordofan, the army engaged them.

He claimed that SRF suffered heavy losses in terms of lives and equipment, adding that the army continued chasing their fighters who fled into North Darfur.

The governor of North Darfur, Muatassim Mirghani, corroborated the army’s account stressing that his state was working in close coordination with the army.

But the Darfur-born Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) gave a different version claiming that they seized the Wad Bahr village.

“We beat the army and seized many weapons,” JEM spokesman Gibril Adam told Reuters.

It is to be noted that Wad Banda is where JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim was killed by the Sudanese army under mysterious circumstances in late 2011.

Fighting between the rebels and the army has been so far mainly limited to Darfur as well as South Kordofan and Blue Nile states bordering South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in 2011.

JEM is member of the SRF, which also includes the Sudan People Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) fighting the army in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

(ST)