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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Apr 06 2011 - 10:16:39 EDT
Sudan accuses Israel of attack near port city
Wed Apr 6, 2011 11:37am GMT
* Sudan says Israel wants Khartoum to stay on US terror list
* One of two killed was Sudanese citizen
KHARTOUM, April 6 (Reuters) - Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti on
Wednesday accused Israel of carrying out an attack on Tuesday near Port
Sudan that killed two people and said Khartoum reserved the right to react
to the aggression.
"This is absolutely an Israeli attack," he told reporters.
He said Israel undertook the attack in order scupper Sudan's chances of
being removed from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.
One of the two people killed in the strike was a Sudanese citizen who had no
ties to Islamists or the government, he said.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor declined to comment on the
accusation.
Sudanese officials have offered different versions on how the strike was
carried out. Police say a missile struck the car near the port city, but a
state government official blamed a bombing by a foreign aircraft that flew
in from the Red Sea.
Sudanese officials in 2009 said unknown aircraft had killed scores in a
strike on a convoy of suspected arms smugglers on a remote road in the east,
which some reports said may have been carried out by Israel to stop weapons
bound for Gaza.
Sudan is on a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, but Washington this
year initiated the process to remove it from that list after a peaceful
January referendum in which the country's south voted to secede. (Reporting
by Deepa Babington and Khaled Abdelaziz; Editing by Matthew Jones)
C Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved
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About 34,000 people flee S.Sudan tribal clashes-UN
Wed Apr 6, 2011 8:13am GMT
* U.N. says 80,000 displaced in S.Sudan this year
* Violence affecting aid efforts
JUBA, Sudan, April 6 (Reuters) - About 34,000 southern Sudanese have fled
their homes after tribal clashes over land, water and cattle in recent
weeks, a U.N. humanitarian official said, adding to southern troubles before
independence in July.
The oil-rich south voted overwhelmingly to separate from the north in a
January referendum, promised as part of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades
of civil war in Sudan. At least two million died in the war, which
destabilised much of the region.
The euphoria following the south's historic vote has been undermined in
recent weeks by a string of violent clashes, including skirmishes between
the southern army and rebel militia, as well as traditional tribal fighting
over resources.
About 80,000 people fled violence in the region between January and March,
some 34,000 of them in the last few weeks, Lise Grande, U.N. Deputy Resident
and Humanitarian Coordinator in Southern Sudan, said on Wednesday.
The latest mass displacement was caused by fighting that broke out between
communities along border regions in the Lakes and Western Equatoria states
before the region's intense rainy season, a U.N. report said.
Fighting first broke out on Feb. 9, followed by a second wave from March 9,
the report said.
"In Southern Sudan there is a cycle or pattern to this type of violence ...
it is resource-based," Grande told Reuters, adding that disputes over land,
cattle and water come to the fore as heavy rains arrive in the
underdeveloped region.
The seasonal violence compounds the south's other humanitarian pressures as
it prepares to form a new African nation in just over three months.
More than 264,000 returnees have flocked to the south since October, the
report said.
In Jonglei state at least 18,000 people have been displaced since more than
200 people were killed in early February, when a rebel militia battled the
southern army, it added.
The United Nations said the persistent tension and fighting in the south has
hindered access to civilians in need.
Analysts fear for the stability of the new nation, given the momentum of its
humanitarian crises, along with its troubled relationship with the north and
unresolved issues such as sharing oil and the disputed Abyei area.
Last year the United Nations said almost half the southern population was
short of food. (Reporting by Jeremy Clarke; editing by Deepa Babington and
Tim Pearce)
C Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved
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