After Abyei Deal, Bombs Rain Down on Sudan Border State
Khartoum stepped up air strikes in South Kordofan on the south Sudan border on Tuesday, causing "huge suffering" to the civilian population and endangering emergency aid, the United Nations said.
The attacks came less than a day after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and his southern counterpart Salva Kiir wrapped up two days of crisis talks in Ethiopia that ended with of a provisional deal to pull the northern army out of the disputed Abyei border district.
An official of the African Union, which brokered the talks, said that, while the presidents had focused primarily on Abyei, which was occupied by northern troops last month, they had also addressed the issue of security along the rest of the north-south border.
But border security now looks in jeopardy, just weeks before the south is due to win recognition as an independent state, with the fighting in central Sudan showing no sign of abating.
"We are extremely concerned about the bombing campaign, which is causing huge suffering to the civilian population and endangering humanitarian assistance," Kouider Zerrouk, spokesman for the U.N. Mission in Sudan, told Agence France Presse.
"The intensive bombing by SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces -- northern army) in the past week is continuing in Kadugli and Kauda, where jet fighters dropped 11 bombs at 10:30 this morning (0730 GMT), apparently targeting an airfield," he added.
Two bombs landed very close to the UNMIS compound in Kauda, which is situated just 150 meters from the airstrip.
The SAF denied it was targeting civilians in the embattled border state.
"We have a rebellion in South Kordofan and we are targeting the rebels," army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad told AFP.
Heavy fighting between forces from the north, including both the SAF and government-back militiamen, and fighters aligned to southern former rebel group the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) has raged across the heavily-armed state since June 5.
Fears had been growing among civilians of intensified SAF air strikes on former rebel strongholds, where the indigenous Nuba peoples fought on the side of the SPLA during the devastating 1983-2005 civil war between north and south.
"We reiterate our call on the SAF, the SPLA and other armed groups who are involved in this conflict to allow immediate access to humanitarian agencies, stop military attacks against civilians and respect and protect them in accordance with international law," Zerrouk said.
Another U.N. source said clashes between northern troops and the SPLA were still raging between 15 and 20 kilometers from the UNMIS compound in Kauda, involving air strikes and heavy artillery.
UNMIS was unable to provide details of casualties from the latest violence in South Kordofan.
But a Sudan rights group said late on Monday that more than 65 people have been killed in air strikes carried out by Antonov bombers in different locations around the state over the past nine days.
The Sudan Democracy First Group (SDGP), in a six page report, accused the northern army of pursuing a genocidal campaign in South Kordofan, targeting the Nuba peoples and supported by the Popular Defense Forces, a feared civil war militia that now forms part of the Sudanese army.
The U.N. refugee agency, meanwhile, appealed to the Sudanese authorities to provide air and road access for humanitarian agencies to South Kordofan, where U.N. offices and warehouses have been looted.
Planes have been denied authorization to land and roadblocks were hampering access by land, said spokeswoman Melissa Fleming.
Reports are also emerging of alleged atrocities carried out by the armed forces on civilians and Sudanese U.N. staff.
The Sudanese human rights group said many extra-judicial killings had been carried out during house-to-house searches for people suspected of sympathizing with southern-aligned troops.
It said two UNMIS staff members, Numeiri Silik and Juma Bahr, were killed in front of the mission's compound in Kadugli, and another man's body was found dumped there.
Source: Agence France Presse
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