The official spokesman of the Sudanese Armed Forces, Colonel Sawarmi Khaled Saad, addresses the media in Khartoum on October 31, 2011 on the situation in South Kordofan state, where clashes have occured., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Sunday 1 July 2012
Sudanese army prepare to target rebels wherever they are - official
June 30, 2012 (KHARTOUM) - In reaction to recent attacks by rebel groups, the Sudanese army said it will carry out new attacks on the rebel groups, saying that the rebels are seeking to disturb civilian security in the Darfur region.
Two factions of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) said this week they attacked Sudanese military convoys moving in Nyala-El-Fasher road in South Darfur.
The rebel said they had killed an important number of soldiers and captured over sixty vehicles. The Sudanese army did not deny these statements.
The army will conduct ground and air attacks against the rebel groups wherever they are because they are targeting civilians, said Al-Sawarmi Khalid, Sudan Armed Forces spokesman, on Saturday.
The military official, who accused South Sudan of providing logistical support to the rebels recently, pointed out that the rebels avoid confronting the army, instead attacking small villages and targeting markets.
He disclosed that they had monitored the arrival of rebels belonging to the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and SLM-Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) groups together with a company of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement - North (SPLM-N), in Koroma and Kira areas in Jebel Marra, South Darfur.
He further added that the Juba government did not take serious steps to expel Darfur rebels from its territory and continues to provide them with the necessary support.
Sudan and South Sudan continue, in Addis Ababa, to discuss the implementation of a number of security agreements they signed aiming to establish a buffer zone and to stop support to rebel groups.
The Joint Political and Security Mechanism (JPSM) failed this week to agree on a map of the buffer zone and the delegations are expected to resume talks on 5 July.
Before the 2 May decisions of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) demanding the two countries stop ground and air attacks, the Sudanese air force had carried out attacks inside the South Sudanese territory saying it was targeting camps of Darfur rebels.
It is not clear whether Khartoum intends just to alert the international community on recent violations of the resolution 2046 by the South Sudanese government or to prepare to resume air raids.
Sudan accepted this week formally a tripartite initiative to distribute humanitarian assistance in the rebel held areas of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
The long awaited humanitarian operation requires the two parties to observe a cessation of hostilities even if they did not sign it officially.
Observers fear that this de facto truce in South Kordofan might lead to a fresh outbreak in Darfur.
(ST)
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