US Warns of Conflict over Sudan Border Deal Refusal

New York---Sudan’s refusal to accept a deal with South Sudan over the possible border area could spark an “outright conflict”, the US has warned. US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said on Thursday that the US is deeply concerned about the lack of urgency from both countries in implementing an agreed roadmap by the African Union (AU), aimed at averting new conflict.

A possible demarcation of the 1800km border remains in dispute since the south seceded in July last year, with five key oil-rich areas which both sides claim remaining in question.

Speaking after a UN Security Council meeting on the matter, Ms Rice said Khartoum’s refusal to sign to the roadmap “calls into question its seriousness” to resolve the issue that “risks the resumption of an outright conflict.”

South Sudan had earlier accepted terms of an AU roadmap issued in May, but Sudan has refused to do so. The UN endorsed calls for both Sudans to withdraw troops from the contested regions and resume negotiations aimed at resolving outstanding issues.

Fighting along the disputed border had threatened an all-out war between the two neighbour states in April, prompting a resolution by the UN Security Council demanding both sides to end hostilities or face sanctions.

Neither of the two countries met the original August 2 deadline as demanded by the UN, but the council has extended it to September 22. Recent series of AU mediated talks chaired by former South African leader Thabo Mbeki have seen a provisional oil deal struck last month, though Sudan maintains that it wants a border security agreement before it resumes oil production.

The talks which resumed this week are expected to put oil agreements in its final form which then will require ultimate pact from both presidents in a summit.

Desist in production of the crude which both sides heavily depend on has seen soaring inflation and shortages of foreign currency in both countries, since January when the south shut down its oil fields following a row over oil transit fees accusing the north of stealing its oil and over excessive transit charges.

Mombasa, Kenya

Ethnic Clashes leave Ten Dead

Over eleven people have been killed in renewed ethnic clashes in Tana Delta area in south-eastern Kenya, weeks after related clashes between the region’s two varying communities left more than 50 people dead.

Long-standing dispute between the nomadic Orma and the farming Pokomo ethnic communities over cattle rustling and grazing and farming rights in Tana River region of Coast Province has seen them lock in deadly proxy attacks in fight of access of the region’s fertile land and waters from the Tana River.

Armed raiders on Thursday night hit a village and set houses on fire in a said reprisal attack following last month’s attack on an Orma held settlement that left over 52 people dead.

A government official in the region who confirmed the attack said “eleven people had been killed.”

 "We heard gunshots and screams, then there was smoke all over," said Jillo Dabacha, who chairs a community security group in the Tana Delta area.

The latest attack is on a Pokomo village follows last month’s massacre on Orma villages where the victims mostly women and children caught unawares in the night raid were either hacked or burned to death.

"There is a lot of tension in the area following the attack. These are revenge attacks," Kenya Red Cross official Nelly Muluka told the AFP news agency.

Violence in the area has been linked to political incitement that has been fuelled by proliferation of arms smuggled into the region from bordering lawless state of Somalia.

The police who say they are investigating the violence have been accused of “laxity and reluctance” in failing to prevent the clashes one of the poorest regions in the country, with very little infrastructure.

In 2001 a spate of clashes in the same area between the two communities left at least 130 people dead.