Friday, April 20, 2012

Sudan’s army ‘liberated’ Heglig from South Sudanese troops: defense minister


Sudan’s Minister of Defense Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein said his forces drove South Sudanese forces from the oil region of Heglig. (Reuters)
Sudan’s Minister of Defense Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein said his forces drove South Sudanese forces from the oil region of Heglig. (Reuters)

Sudan’s army has “liberated” the contested Heglig oil region seized by South Sudanese forces on April 10, Sudan’s Minister of Defense Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein said in a statement on Friday, hours after Juba said it was withdrawing its troops within three days.

South Sudan’s Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin earlier told reporters that President Salva Kiir ordered SPLA troops to withdraw from Heglig.
“An orderly withdrawal will commence immediately and shall be completed within three days,” the statement added, potentially easing conflict that has threatened to plunge the countries back into war.

Fighting between Sudan and South Sudan escalated earlier this month, following the South’s seizure of Heglig, which makes up around half of Sudan’s oil production and is key to its faltering economy.

International powers have called on Juba to pull back its forces, but Juba had resisted those calls, insisting it would do so only after Khartoum withdrew its troops from the neighboring contested Abyei region.

On Thursday United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the South’s taking of Heglig as an “illegal act,” but Juba still maintained Friday that Heglig -- which it calls Panthou in the local Dinka language -- was its territory.

“The decision to pull out of Panthou (Heglig) is without prejudice to our stand that Panthou remains an integral part of the Republic of South Sudan,” the statement added.

“We therefore expect that the final status of Panthou-Heglig, and other disputed border areas, will be referred for international arbitration.”

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has called for the destruction of the “insect” Juba government, and has launched waves of air strikes against the former civil war foe.

Kiir’s statement said that that Khartoum had to end its “air bombardments and ground incursions” into South Sudan.

The rival armies clashed heavily late Thursday, as Khartoum’s troops sought to oust entrenched Southern soldiers from positions in Heglig, Southern army spokesman Philip Aguer said.

“There was fighting on Thursday evening, SAF (Sudan’s army) was advancing and they were beaten,” he said, adding he had no reports of fighting on Friday.

However, other reports from border areas suggested fighting was still ongoing.

No comments:

Post a Comment