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January 27, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The second Vice-President of Sudan, Al-Haj Adam Youssef, has warned that his country’s army could strike as far as South Sudan’s capital Juba in pursuit of hunting rebels operating in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
- Sudan’s newly appointed Vice President al-Haj Adam Youssef looks on after his oath-taking ceremony in Khartoum September 14, 2011 (Reuters)
Youssef was quoted on Thursday by the liberal daily newspaper Al-Sahafah as saying that the Sudanese Armed Forces was besieging rebel fighters of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLMN) in the country’s southern states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
Sudan’s army has been fighting SPLMN rebels in the two states bordering South Sudan since last year. The rebels fought as part of South Sudan’s army during the war with Sudan but they rejected Khartoum’s attempt to disarm them by force following South Sudan’s independence, leading to the outbreak of the war in the two states.
The Sudanese vice-president said that the government’s patience was wearing thin towards South Sudan’s ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which Khartoum accuses of backing the rebels.
Youssef vowed that SAF would pursue the rebels into South Sudan and as far as its capital Juba.
“If necessary, Juba is not far,” he told the paper during celebrations of Sudan’s independence in the central state of Al-Jazzirah.
The SPLM in Juba denies supporting the rebels but makes no secret of its sympathy with its former comrades in arms.
Sudan’s army continues to carry out aerial bombardment in South Kordofan and Blue Nile. It also attacked some parts inside the borders of South Sudan on several occasions.
UN agencies estimate that some 417,000 civilian were forced to flee the war zones in the two states. It is also estimated that over 80,000 refugees are now in South Sudan.
In a related vein, Youssef said that the ongoing talks in Addis Ababa between Sudan and South Sudan are not only about the transit fees the South should pay to export its oil through Sudan’s territories, but are about all the aspects of relations between the two countries.
This month Sudan’s foreign minister Ali Karti said that the two countries are unlikely to reach a deal on oil without a parallel deal on border security and cessation of South Sudan’s alleged support to the rebels.
(ST)
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