---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> Date: Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 3:04 PM Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Fw: UNMIS investigates South Kordofan clashes To: Group <[email protected]>
UN Mission in Sudan Investigates Attacks in Kordofan State Spokeswoman Hua Jiang says the UN sent in land and air patrols to investigate as it could not determine who the fighting was between VOA James Butty June 06, 2011 A spokesperson for the U.N. Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) says the world body is concerned about new fighting in South Kordofan state. This comes as North Sudan's government over the weekend rejected a call from the U.N. Security Council to pull its troops out of the disputed Abyei region, which it has occupied since May 21st. Hua Jiang, UNMIS public information director, says the mission has sent out patrols to verify reports of attacks on two towns in South Kordofan State. “The information I got so far is that there [were] two attacks, one happened in the morning (Sunday) and one happened last [Saturday] night. The incident last [Saturday] night was that, in the town of Kadugli, the police station was attacked by an unknown group. In a different incident, we heard there were some gunshots fired in a place called Um Dorain. So far, we don’t have much more details about the two incidents, and the U.N. has sent out ground patrols to verify the situation on the ground,” she says. Jiang says the world body has heard different versions of stories as to what might have prompted the clashes, but no independent verification. Tensions are said to be running high in South Kordofan, which has strong links to south Sudan set to become independent from the north on July 9th. Jiang says the United Nations is concerned about the escalation in violence, but declined to say whether the attacks were provocations by the north. “I think in different parts of Sudan there are different reasons for the fighting. Of course, the U.N. is very much concerned about the escalation of violence inside Sudan,” Jiang says. She says the world body has been appealing to all the parties to restrain from using violence and to re-establish the use of dialogue to resolve their difference. Meanwhile, North Sudan's government Saturday rejected a call from the U.N. Security Council to pull its troops out of the disputed Abyei region. On Friday, the Council condemned the north's occupation of Abyei describing it as a "serious violation" of the 2005 peace deal that ended Sudan's north-south civil war. The north's foreign minister, Ali Ahmad Karti, responded late Saturday, saying the north cannot be asked to withdraw from Abyei because it is Sudanese territory. http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Butty-UN-Sudan-Fighting-Jiang-06june11-123210768.html END ______________________ John Ashworth Sudan Advisor Sudan Ecumenical Forum [email protected] +254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile) +249 919 695 362 (Sudan mobile) +27 82 853 3556 (South Africa mobile) +44 750 304 1790 (UK/international) +88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone) PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily reflect the views of any organisation -- The content of this message does not necessarily reflect John Ashworth's views. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, John Ashworth is not the author of the content and the source is always cited. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudan-john-ashworth" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.za/group/sudan-john-ashworth -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
