'Hundreds killed' in Sudan battle

[nivi]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6158121.stm

At least 300 people were killed in clashes between Sudan's army and former rebels in the south earlier this week, aid workers say.
Most of those killed are soldiers but the fighting took place in the river port town of Malakal so correspondents say many civilians may also have died.

A BBC correspondent in Sudan says the clashes are the most serious breach of a 2005 deal to end two decades of war.

Under that deal, the former rebels joined a power-sharing government.

Tanks

What started as a clash between a northern militia led by Maj Gen Gabriel Tang and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) former rebels escalated when the militia took shelter in a Sudanese army garrison.

The garrison was besieged and then the SPLA stormed the base.


Malakal is a busy port town on the banks of the Nile

The next day the Sudanese army returned and following tank battles and the shelling of parts of Malakal town, retook their camp.

Though the situation is now reported to be calm, parts of Malakal are still too tense to access, so no-one is putting an exact figure on the number of casualties.

High-level delegations from the capital, Khartoum, and the southern capital, Juba, as well as UN peacekeepers have been sent to defuse the situation and a ceasefire has now been agreed, with all forces returning to their original positions.

After fighting each other for more than 20 years, both the mainly Christian and animist SPLA and the Muslim, Arab north say they are keen to prevent any slide towards further conflict.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "deeply concerned" over clashes that flared in the southern town of Malakal on Monday and Tuesday.

Non-essential UN and aid agency staff have been leaving Malakal.

In a statement, Mr Annan appealed to Sudan's national unity government and that of southern Sudan "to make all possible efforts to contain the situation".

The UN peacekeepers in the town withdrew to their barracks.

A spokeswoman said they had no mandate to intervene and that the UN was encouraging both sides to peacefully resolve the situation.

There are 10,000 UN peacekeepers deployed in southern Sudan at a cost of $1bn a year.
Marginalisation

Under the terms of the peace deal, some army units are supposed to merge and these clashes were between troops who are officially part of the same force.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Khartoum says there has been a long dispute between Gen Tang's militia and the SPLA over control of an area near Malakal, located on the banks of the Nile near Sudan's oilfields.
The peace deal has held - until now
He says it has been one of the tensest towns in the south.

During 20 years of civil war, Khartoum armed numerous ethnic militias in the area to enable it to begin extracting oil.

Unlike the continuing conflict in the western region of Darfur, Sudan's north-south ceasefire has largely held but few militiamen have handed in their weapons.

Under the peace deal, the SPLA joined a unity government and SPLA leader Salva Kiir is national vice-president.

Last month, however, south Sudan's Vice-President Riek Machar told the BBC that some aspects of the deal had done been implemented, such as sharing oil revenue and civil service jobs.

At the time BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut said anger was growing in the south at their perceived marginalisation.

The world is beyond repair, I'm going to mars, whos with me?

 

[Yeeek]

Moving to Mars won't change anything, at least it will for a certain time but it won't change how humans behave. We already can't get along in a off-topic forum, so a colonization of Mars would turn into a big brawling fest (well, there's a lot of american posters so i guess guns are a possibility).

 

[Bozo Erectus]

If people start following you to Mars, before you know it you'll be packing again and heading for Venus.

 

[cegman]

What do you mean we can't get along in the OT I can't think of a single person here that I wouldn't guard their back... I can think of a couple I wouldn't trust to guard mine *cough* greenpeace *cough* but that is for other reasons.

 

[Yeeek]

Maybe i should rephrase it that way. I couldn't get along with all the religious fundies spawning on CFC.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

I can think of a couple I wouldn't trust to guard mine *cough* greenpeace *cough* but that is for other reasons.

Do you resemble a whaling vessel?

 

[cegman]

Nah greenpeace just wouldnt' fight, now in an arguement I would love to have him there (depending on what we are argueing about). But in a fight he would be hopeless

 

[cegman]

Yeeek when you have been here as long as I have lurking and recently posting more you come to love these guys even if you want to knock some sense into some of them....

Ok well that went way off topic my fault.

I want to know what we can do to change africa. States don't want to break apart to be nation-states but nations inside states don't feel they are part of the state. The minority is only a minority because of where a European drew a line. Is there anything we can do abolish the states they have and let them reform similar to the way Europe did?

 

[blackheart]

Is there anything we can do abolish the states they have and let them reform similar to the way Europe did?

Give them a thousand years to fight it out and form themselves like Europe did.

 

[cegman]

Except we have satelites above them so we can watch all the action unfold live. Their political marriages and wars. God this sounds like so much fun.

 

[puglover]

Central Africa is a mess. At this rate it will take centuries to heal.

 

[Katheryn]

A billion dollars a year and they are not helping the situation?

Wow, that is major incompetence. The U.N. is a joke everywhere they are deployed. What a waste!

 

[Yeeek]

What should we do then? Its easy to call names and point the finger, i give you that.

 

[cegman]

Kat there isn't anything they can do. If they support one side they get attacked and if they support the other side they get attacked.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

What should we do then? Its easy to call names and point the finger, i give you that.

Hope that Africa gets straightened out. It's obvious that the UN being there is a complete waste of time and money. Until these regions stabalize themselves, there's nothing much we can do.

The world is beyond repair, I'm going to mars, whos with me?

It's not "beyond repair." It's a beautiful place, it's just absurd sometimes.

 

[Trajan12]

The UN is supposed to be assertive. I'd support a police action in the area, UN sponsored. But I don't see that with all these lazy good for nothin's we got now.

 

[JohnRM]

Why is it that some people believe that we can deploy troops in the middle of a civil conflict, in Sudan, and be successful, but yet call for the US to withdraw from Iraq? What makes you believe that we will be any more successful in Sudan, trying to stop this conflict if we are so hopeless in Baghdad?