“…given the predictable collapse sometime in the future, of that famous ‘peace accord’ recently ‘achieved’ for the southern Sudan (one which will last just as long as the government in Khartoum thinks the West is paying close attention and not a minute longer)…” — Hugh Fitzgerald, November 30, 2006
From Reuters, with thanks to Twostellas:
KHARTOUM, Sudan, Nov. 30 — Hundreds of people may have been killed in the heaviest fighting between Sudan’s former north-south foes since they signed a peace deal last year, a former senior rebel officer said Thursday.
Terrified civilians in the southern town of Malakal reported looting and bodies in the streets after three days of clashes, and U.N. officials in New York said 240 civilian workers had been temporarily evacuated.
“More than hundreds have been lost. The Sudan army sustained very heavy casualties, and civilians were caught in the crossfire,” said Elias Waya Nyipuocs, a former senior officer in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, a rebel group that fought the government in a long civil war.
Nyipuocs said a militia allied with the Sudanese armed forces attacked the SPLA and the local commissioner of Malakal. The militiamen then took refuge in military barracks near the airport and full combat began. Nyipuocs said the armed forces fought “side by side” with the militia against the SPLA.