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Sudan rivals trade accusations after Abyei shooting
Sudan’s two armies traded angry accusations on Friday after peacekeepers and northern soldiers were reported wounded in the tense Abyei district on the north-south border.
Shooting broke out late Thursday as peacekeepers from the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) escorted northern troops out of the contested area, the latest outbreak of fighting in the impoverished district.
Aerial bombing raids and long range artillery were reported Friday afternoon.
Deadly fighting and recriminations have flared in Abyei since January, when the district was due to vote on its future, alongside a referendum in the south that delivered a landslide for secession.
The plebiscite was postponed indefinitely as the north and south disagree on who should be eligible to vote.
A spokesman for the north's Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), Sawarmi Khaled Saad, accused the south’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) of attacking its troops.
"Our forces and UN troops came under attack by the SPLA in Abyei area," the official SUNA news agency quoting Saad as saying. "There are substantial losses."
The SPLA denied responsibility.
"As the SAF were withdrawing their troops, there was firing," said SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer.
"From the reports we have, the shooting was started by the SAF firing on the police, and there was firing in return," he said but could not confirm casualty details.
The United Nations strongly condemned the "criminal attack" that targeted peacekeepers who were escorting 200 SAF troops within a north-south joint military unit, as part of an agreement to pull troops out of the area.
"This act constitutes a serious breach of previous agreements made between the two parties," it said in a statement Friday.
"UNMIS calls on the parties to immediately investigate the incident and take appropriate action against the perpetrators of this deliberate attack."
The shooting took place at Dokura in an area controlled by the southern police, north of Abyei town, the statement. There were no details of casualties.
Only special joint north-south units are allowed into Abyei, but recent satellite imagery showed that both sides have built up forces in the area.
However, both sides have agreed to keep their troops outside the district as part of efforts to restore calm.
Aguer said there were no SPLA troops in the area.
"SAF are looking for a pretext to fight and take Abyei," said Aguer.
Later, Abyei administrator Deng Arop Kuol reported aerial attacks in Todach and Tejalei, northeast of Abyei town.
"There are Antonov airplanes from the SAF attacking," he said. "They are bombing the area."
Villages were also attacked in the area, the SPLA said.
"The damage has been great in four villages, with attacks by long range artillery and by bombing from the air," said Aguer. "The SAF have also bombed south of Abyei town, targeting an important bridge into the area."
A UNMIS spokesman could only confirm that two bombs had been dropped on Abyei’s border with the south.
"We can confirm that two bombs were dropped near a bridge in Agok, but they did not damage the bridge," said Kouider Zerrouk.
Abyei's future is the most sensitive of a raft of issues that the two sides are struggling to reach agreement on before the south is recognised as an independent state in July.
Tensions are high in Abyei between the northern-supporting Misseriya, who move each year with their animals for grazing into land farmed by the pro-southern Dinka Ngok.
Abyei also has oil but the vast majority is believed to have been extracted, and levels currently pumped are low.
Meanwhile, reports emerged of separate fighting in the south’s oil-rich Unity state.
"Fighting broke out when rebels attacked the Mankien area of Mayom county, but the SPLA have fought back,' said Charles Kuol, Mayom's commissioner.
"Several soldiers and rebels have been wounded."
Mayom is near key oil-pumping areas critical to Sudan's economy, close to the disputed north-south border and Abyei.
Rebels led by former southern army general Peter Gadet launched an offensive in the area in April, leaving over 100 dead and forcing thousands to flee.
More than 1,000 people have been killed and over 100,000 forced from their homes from violence in the south this year.
