Over 45 people killed in Upper Nile’s clashes
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March 13, 2011 (KHARTOUM) - At least 49 people are reported to have
been killed and 14 others injured in an armed confrontation between
the Southern Army (SPLA) and a rebel group in Malakal, the capital of
Upper Nile state in South Sudan.
The armed group, led by a militia commander known as Oliny, is
allegedly loyal to opposition party, the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement for Democratic Change, SPLM-DC. It has also been claimed that
Oliny is in league with renegade General George Athor Deng who
rebelled against the South Sudan government after he lost a bid to
become governor of Jonglei state.
In the recent past, armed elements loyal to Athor have clashed several
times with forces belonging to the SPLA since he rebelled, resulting
in scores of deaths on both sides.
The SPLM-DC, led by former Sudanese foreign affairs minister Lam Akol,
split from South Sudan’s ruling party the SPLM in June 2009. Akol was
one of the senior SPLM members appointed in 2005 to serve in the
government of national unity after a peace deal between north and
south ended decades of conflict.
Akol was later removed from his post, with the SPLM accusing him of
being too close to the Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party.
Saturday’s fighting, which broke out at 3:00am and continued until
6:00pm (local time), took place predominantly around Malakal airport
and army barracks.
Peter Lam Both, minister of information in the government of Upper
Nile state on Sunday, said in a statement that 44 members of the
militia group were killed as well as one SPLA soldier and four other
policemen.
Seven SPLA soldiers and nine policemen were injured and were rushed to
the Malakal hospital, Both said.
The minister said that the attackers were dislodged from Malakal and
chased towards northern Upper Nile. Both claimed that some of those
killed wore t-shirts with the SPLM-DC written on them and those caught
have confessed they were loyal to Akol and Oliny.
The minister said he regretted the loss of life and damage to property
and repeated the South’s claim that the militias were backed by
Khartoum and the ruling NCP, saying their objective is to destabilize
the South.
The NCP denied that they are aiding the southern rebel movements.
South Sudan is due to become independent in July following a
referendum in favour of separation earlier this year. The plebiscite
was agreed in a 2005 peace deal between the SPLM and NCP, which ended
decades of conflict.
SPLA spokesperson, Phillip Panyang Aguer, said that one of the
captured militia members held the rank of Lt. Colonel in the Southern
army and had been a bodyguard to a senior wildlife official.
Attempts made by Sudan Tribune to reach Akol and his Secretary General
Sandra Bona Malual, both on Saturday and Sunday failed.
ORPHAN HOSTAGES
Upper Nile minister Both said that during Saturday’s fighting the
militia entered the compound of an orphanage and took some of the
children hostage. The children were released, he said, after the
United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) negotiated their release.
"We agreed with the hostage takers that once the children are
released, the UN would take them and eventually release them," he
said.
However, "instead of going with the UN forces, these 4 people decided
to open fire on the UN and SPLA Forces. As the result, fighting ensued
and in the end, 4 of them were killed in the battle. It is unfortunate
to report that the building is now razed to the ground as the result
of fighting."
The attackers, he added, entered Upper Nile University and mixed with
students at the institution, making it hard for the army to pursue
them.
A few days earlier Oliny clashed with SPLA forces in Shilluk villages
outside the state capital.
With southern secesion due in July, analysts say these recent waves of
fighting witnessed in Abyei, Jonglei and Malakal casts doubt over the
stability of the soon-to-be independent region.
Malakal town, Both said, returned to normal on Sunday with most shops reopening.
(ST)
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