June 21, 2012 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese troops and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) rebels clashed last Wednesday in South Kordofan village of El-Fragil west of Dilling.

Due to the rainy season which hampers the movement of troops, the violence decreased recently in the region. Also there is no new political development to break the deadlock over possible talks between the two sides.

However, SPLM-N spokesperson Arno Nuguthulu Lodi said their troops captured El-Fragil stressing that their forces advance towards Dilling one of the big towns in the troubled state.

He said their fighters inflected heavy losses on the Sudanese soldiers captured seized a number of weapons other military equipment.

Sudan Armed Forces spokesperson Al-Swarmi Khalid, confirmed the clashes but he dismissed the rebel statement saying the army cleaned up the area of SPLM-N rebels.

"What happened is that the Sudanese Armed Forces evicted the rebels from the Mountains surrounding El-Fragil area" Al-Sawami said; adding they killed tens of rebels and captured their equipment.

The thousands of civilians fled the region following the start of hostilities between the two sides since one year ago. Un agencies and aid groups established camps in the neighbouring state of South Sudan to receive the Sudanese refugees.

Khartoum, however continues to deny humanitarian access to the SPLM-N held areas in the Nuba Mountains as the UN supported by the African Union and the Arab league formulated a tripartite plan to bring humanitarian assistance to the restive state.

Following a meeting with Ali Al-Za’tari UN Resident and ?Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Sudanese undersecretary at the foreign ministry Rahmat-Allah Mohamed Osman said his country has some reservations on this plan.

In a statement to the official SUNA on Thursday, the Sudanese diplomat said the government has shown a number of observations on the Trilateral Initiative for the humanitarian situation in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

He added that some parties seek to amplify the (bad) image of the humanitarian situation in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states for their own purposes.

Khartoum recently accused SPLM-N rebels of organizing recent massive arrival of refugees to put pressure on the international community to act against Sudanese government. But Malik Agar, SPLM-N leader, denied such allegations.

(ST)