KHARTOUM, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Sudan's armed forces attacked rebels near the
capital of the oil-producing South Kordofan state on Monday, killing 18
people, a state-linked website said, in an escalation of recent fighting on
several fronts in Sudan's borderlands.
Sudan's government is battling an alliance of rebels in the western region
of Darfur and the southern states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile which both
border Khartoum's arch rival South Sudan.
The fighting is overshadowing current talks between Sudan and South Sudan in
Ethiopia over a border security agreement to end hostilities after both
nations came close to war in April.
Sudan accuses South Sudan of supporting the rebels in the disputed border
region, while Juba says Khartoum funds militias in South Sudan. Diplomats
say both allegations are credible.
South Sudan split from Sudan last year under a 2005 peace deal that ended
decades of civil war, but the two have remained at odds over a range of
issues.
Sudan's army spokesman al-Sawarmi Khalid said his forces had attacked rebels
of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-North) in Mashar and
Dluka south of Kadugli, the state capital of South Kordofan, the Sudanese
Media Center (SMC) said.
"The armed forces cleansed (the areas) on a large scale. Eighteen rebels
were killed and a large number of them wounded," Khalid told the
state-linked SMC website.
There was no immediate comment from the rebels. The SPLM-North and a Darfur
rebel group fought with the army in a different part of South Kordofan and
also Darfur on Thursday, killing dozens of people, army and rebels said.
On another front, Darfuri rebels of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM),
which were involved in Thursday's fighting, said they had attacked on Sunday
an army convoy in an area called "Kilometer 50" in the north of South
Kordofan.
"We killed tens of soldiers. We now completely control the area," JEM
spokesman Jibril Adam said.
But army spokesman Sawarmi told Reuters there had been no fighting in the
area. "This region is completely under government control."
The often conflicting claims are impossible to verify due to a lack of
access for foreign media to the remote border areas. (Reporting by Ulf
Laessing; Editing by Michael Roddy)
Twenty more "Niles" needed to feed growing population-leaders
Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:42pm GMT
* Former leaders urge U.N. to make water top concern
* Chretien says scarcity will lead to conflict
* Greatest growth in demand seen in China, the United States, India
By Alister Doyle
OSLO, Sept 10 (Reuters) - The world needs to find the equivalent of the flow
of 20 Nile rivers by 2025 to grow enough food to feed a rising population
and help avoid conflicts over water scarcity, a group of former leaders said
on Monday.
Factors such as climate change would strain freshwater supplies and nations
including China and India were likely to face shortages within two decades,
they said, calling on the U.N. Security Council to get more involved.
"The future political impact of water scarcity may be devastating," former
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said of a study issued by a group of
40 former leaders he co-chairs including former U.S. President Bill Clinton
and Nelson Mandela.
"It will lead to some conflicts," Chretien told reporters on a telephone
conference call, highlighting tensions such as in the Middle East over the
Jordan River.
The study, by the InterAction Council of former leaders, said the U.N.
Security Council should make water the top concern. Until now, the Security
Council has treated water as a factor in other crises, such as Sudan or the
impact of global warming.
It said that about 3,800 cubic km (910 cubic miles) of fresh water was taken
from rivers and lakes every year.
"With about 1 billion more mouths to feed worldwide by 2025, global
agriculture alone will require another 1,000 cubic km (240 cubic miles) of
water per year," it said. The world population now is just over 7 billion.
The increase was "equal to the annual flow of 20 Niles or 100 Colorado
Rivers", according to the report, also backed by the U.N. University's
Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNWEH) and Canada's Gordon
Foundation.
CHINA, INDIA
It said the greatest growth in demand for water would be in China, the
United States and India due to population growth, increasing irrigation and
economic growth.
"By 2030, demand for water in India and China, the most populous nations on
Earth, will exceed their current supplies," the report said.
Global warming, blamed on human emissions of greenhouse gases from burning
fossil fuels, would aggravate the problems.
"We say in the U.N. system that climate change is all about water," said
Zafar Adeel, director of UNWEH. Severe weather events - such as droughts,
floods, mudslides or downpours - were becoming more frequent.
UN-Water, which coordinates water-related efforts by the United Nations,
will organise a meeting of foreign ministers this month and separate talks
among experts on Sept. 25 to look at ways to address concerns over water.
The report said there were examples of water-related conflicts, for instance
between Israelis and Palestinians over aquifers, between Egypt and other
nations sharing the Nile, or between Iran and Afghanistan over the Hirmand
River.
But it said the world had many chances to conserve water and to shift
towards what it called a "blue economy". Fixing leaky pipes could help - in
developing nations, about 40 percent of domestic water is lost before it
reaches households.
Nations such as Israel have limited water use, for instance by shifting to
less water-intensive crops or recycling. Olives or dates need less water,
for instance, than oranges.
The report said that annual spending on improving water supplies and
sanitation in developing nations should be raised by about $11 billion a
year. Every dollar spent would yield an economic return of $3 to $4, it
estimated.
One billion people have no fresh water and 2 billion lack basic sanitation.
About 4,500 children die of water-related diseases every day - the
equivalent of 10 jumbo jets falling out of the sky with no survivors,
Chretien wrote.
(Editing by Alison Williams)
C Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
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