UN Chief Condemns Sudan Incursion on Rival South

By staff writer

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned Sudan’s cross-border assault on its southern rival, calling on leaders of the two sides to stop slide to further conflict, in a row that has raised international concerns over risking an all-out war.

On Monday Sudanese warplanes carried out air raids on a market and an oil field in South Sudan, after its ground forces had reportedly crossed the border into the south with tanks and artillery.

Moon condemned the aerial bombardment Monday, calling on the Khartoum government to “cease all hostilities immediately”, stressing that the dispute cannot be solved through military ways and urged leaders of the two sides to “return to dialogue as a matter of urgency.”

"The secretary-general condemns the aerial bombardment on South Sudan by Sudanese armed forces and calls on the government of Sudan to cease all hostilities immediately," deputy UN spokesperson Eduardo del Buey read the statement.

With the recent collapse of the African Union-backed talks, the Sudanese long-standing feud seems to be taking shape again, threatening for another all-out war.

Confirming the attack, South Sudan military spokesman Col Philip Aguer said Antonov bombers accompanied by MiG 29 jets bombed a market in Rubkona, two-hour drive away from Abiemnom in Unity state, where the warplanes carried out other attacks also on the state’s oil fileds.

So far only two people have been confirmed died in the market attack and nine others wounded, as neither the extent of the damage at the oil field nor casualties in the region could be known due to poor communications.

Sudanese troops launched on Sunday an incursion six miles into the South Sudan border   and continue to fight, even after the South said Sunday it had completed a withdrawal of its troops from the disputed oil town of Heglig.

President Omar al-Bashir who had toured Heglig on Friday said the military campaign will continue and until South Kordofan and Blue Nile states are rid of all southern troops or affiliate forces who are supported by the government in Juba.

He said in a rally during Friday’s tour that he would never allow South Sudan oil to pass through Sudan “even if they gave us half the proceeds”, ruling out prospects for future talks with rival south leader Salva Kiir who is in Beijing to drum support from China, a major ally of the Khartoum government.

Washington has strongly denounced the Khartoum military incursion into the south, calling immediate halt of any further bombardment, urging South Sudan to exercise restraint in its reaction to Sudan’s attack.

In its statement welcoming the South’s withdrawal from oil-rich Heglig, the European Union Monday urged the two neighbors to end their armed confrontation and negotiate, calling on Sudan to refrain from further attacks or bombardment.

Heglig, which lies along the disputed border, had been until Sunday under the Juba forces in the past weeks of clashes. The South Sudan Army claimed it seized Heglig, an oil-rich region that accounts for majority of Sudan’s oil production, to elude further attacks by the north in the south. It had set conditions of withdrawal but later relented following a call by the UN to facilitate negotiations.

Since the South’s independence last year, conflict has been simmering between the two states following unsettled matters including a possible border region and sharing of oil resources. The south took most of the oilfields after the July secession, but depends on the northern pipeline for its exports which accounts for 98% of its national budgeting.