Tensions in Sudan

Sudan accused South Sudan of launching a renewed incursion into an oil-producing area near their mutual border, as talks in Ethiopia aimed at defusing rising tensions between the two sides failed to get off the ground.

"In South Kordofan state today the South Sudanese army crossed the Sudanese international border and went three kilometers (two miles) into the Heglig area," army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad was quoted by the official SUNA news agency as saying.

"The (Sudanese) armed forces are now dealing with the enemy forces," Saad added.

Clashes between the two sides broke out last Monday in the disputed Heglig border area, the site of an oil field. South Sudan chose independence from Khartoum in a referendum held last July, but their international border has not been clearly demarcated. The south is populated largely by black Africans who practice Christian and animist beliefs, while the north is predominantly Arab and Muslim.

South Sudan's chief negotiator, Pagan Amum, accused Khartoum of being the aggressor and attacking the towns of Manga and Panakuach in Unity state.

"We are here … to attempt to make peace," Amum said in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. "The government of Sudan is bombing us as we speak."

Talks delayed

Both Khartoum and Juba sent teams to Addis Ababa for negotiations sponsored by the African Union. But top officials from Sudan, such as the defense minister and army chief-of-staff, failed to arrive. Amum said their absence was a move by Khartoum to delay the start of the talks.

"The government of Sudan did not send the leader of their team," Amum said. "It is now clear that they have different intentions."

In addition to demarcating their border, Khartoum and Juba must decide how much the landlocked South should pay to transit its crude oil through the North for export, and how to govern the disputed border region of Abyei.

Sudan's delegation in Addis Ababa said that it remained committed to negotiations with South Sudan.

"The government confirms that dialogue with South Sudan is the right way to solve all issues and to have peace between the two states," the delegation said in a statement, according to the SUNA news agency.

slk/pfd (AFP, Reuters)