Sudan’s VP threatens army strike on Juba
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January 27, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The second Vice-President of Sudan,
Al-Haj Adam Youssef, has warned that his country’s army could strike
as far as South Sudan’s capital Juba in pursuit of hunting rebels
operating in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
JPEG - 34.8 kb
Sudan’s newly appointed Vice President al-Haj Adam Youssef looks on
after his oath-taking ceremony in Khartoum September 14, 2011 (REUTERS
PICTURES)
Youssef was quoted on Thursday by the liberal daily newspaper
Al-Sahafah as saying that the Sudanese Armed Forces was besieging
rebel fighters of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLMN)
in the country’s southern states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
Sudan’s army has been fighting SPLMN rebels in the two states
bordering South Sudan since last year. The rebels fought as part of
South Sudan’s army during the war with Sudan but they rejected
Khartoum’s attempt to disarm them by force following South Sudan’s
independence, leading to the outbreak of the war in the two states.
The Sudanese vice-president said that the government’s patience was
wearing thin towards South Sudan’s ruling party, the Sudan People’s
Liberation Movement (SPLM), which Khartoum accuses of backing the
rebels.
Youssef vowed that SAF would pursue the rebels into South Sudan and as
far as its capital Juba.
“If necessary, Juba is not far,” he told the paper during celebrations
of Sudan’s independence in the central state of Al-Jazzirah.
The SPLM in Juba denies supporting the rebels but makes no secret of
its sympathy with its former comrades in arms.
Sudan’s army continues to carry out aerial bombardment in South
Kordofan and Blue Nile. It also attacked some parts inside the borders
of South Sudan on several occasions.
UN agencies estimate that some 417,000 civilian were forced to flee
the war zones in the two states. It is also estimated that over 80,000
refugees are now in South Sudan.
In a related vein, Youssef said that the ongoing talks in Addis Ababa
between Sudan and South Sudan are not only about the transit fees the
South should pay to export its oil through Sudan’s territories, but
are about all the aspects of relations between the two countries.
This month Sudan’s foreign minister Ali Karti said that the two
countries are unlikely to reach a deal on oil without a parallel deal
on border security and cessation of South Sudan’s alleged support to
the rebels.
(ST)
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