KHARTOUM Nov 6 (Reuters) - Sudan said on Saturday it had submitted a new
complaint against South Sudan to the United Nations Security Council,
accusing it of supporting rebels in two border states, in a sign of new
tensions between the two former civil war foes.
Sudan recognised South Sudan as an independent country when it broke away
from Khartoum on July 9 this year after a referendum agreed under a 2005
peace agreement.
But tensions have risen since then as north and south blame each other for
violence on both sides of their poorly-marked border. They have also failed
to agree how to share oil revenues and find a solution for the disputed
region of Abyei.
On Saturday, a spokesman for the foreign ministry said Sudan had submitted a
fresh complaint against South Sudan to the Security Council accusing it of
supporting rebels in the two northern border states of South Kordofan and
Blue Nile.
South Sudan "continues providing (rebels) with anti-aircraft and anti-tank
missiles as well as with ammunition, landmines and mortars," the foreign
ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SUNA.
Sudan filed a similar complaint in August.
The Sudanese army has been fighting for months against rebels of the
northern wing of the SPLM in both states. The SPLM is the ruling party in
South Sudan. It denies any support for the rebels north of the border.
For its part, South Sudan has repeatedly accused Sudan of supporting rebels
operating in the area south of the border. Sudan denies the charges.
Diplomats had hoped bilateral tensions would ease after southern President
Salva Kiir visited Khartoum in October, his first trip to the north since
independence.
Kiir and his northern counterpart Omar Hassan al-Bashir pledged during the
visit to find solutions for all disputes and set up several committees to
make progress, but little has happened since then. (Reporting by Ulf
Laessing; Editing by Peter Graff)
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Received on Sat Nov 05 2011 - 19:50:32 EDT