Sudan, South Sudan accuse each other of border attacks
JUBA/KHARTOUM | Thu Dec 27, 2012 9:32am EST
(Reuters) - Sudan and South Sudan on Thursday accused each other of
incursions into disputed border areas, in a new setback to plans to secure
their volatile boundary and resume cross-border oil flows.
The accusations come a day after Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir
said he was willing to meet his South Sudan counterpart Salva Kiir to try to
move forward stalled talks to set up a demilitarized border zone.
The African neighbors agreed to end hostilities in September and to resume
oil exports from South Sudan via the north after coming close to war in
April, the worst violence since the South's secession last year.
But neither has moved back its army from the border, a step both say is
needed to resume oil exports from the landlocked South through the north.
Both economies depend on oil.
South Sudan's army spokesman Philip Aguer said Sudanese war planes had
bombed the area of Kiir Adem, which lies inside a 14 mile-wide strip of land
known as the Mile 14 area and claimed by both countries.
"Five people were killed during the bombing yesterday," he said, adding that
all victims were civilians.
Sudan's army in turn said in a statement that South Sudanese soldiers had
laid a large number of landmines in Mile 14, after which clashes broke out
between citizens and armed groups belonging to the South's army.
Sudan has repeatedly denied South Sudan's claims of launching air strikes.
In September, the rivals agreed to recognize administrative borders used by
former colonial power Britain at independence in 1956 and to pull their
armies back 10 km from the line. But the line's exact position is disputed.
Mile 14 runs parallel to the south bank of the River Kiir, known as Bahr al
Arab in the north. The United Nations mission in South Sudan says Kiir Adem
lies north of the 1956 border and south of the Kiir river.
South Sudan had initially planned to resume exports by year-end after
shutting down its output of 350,000 barrels a day in January after failing
to agree on an export fee with Sudan.
The African Union, backed by Western powers, has urged Bashir and Kiir to
meet as soon as possible to resolve their disputes.
South Sudan seceded in July last year after overwhelmingly voting for
independence in a referendum promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended a
civil war.
(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Roger Atwood)
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Received on Thu Dec 27 2012 - 16:04:30 EST
