Tuesday, March 15, 2011

At least 42 dead in clashes between rebels and the army in southern Sudan

Khartoum .- At least 42 people, including two soldiers, were killed Saturday in a shootout between the military and rebel troops in the town of Malakal in southern Sudan, official sources said. The military spokesman of the autonomous region of south Pillip Aguer, told reporters that the rebels authors of the attack on the city of Malakal in Upper Nile province, took refuge in an orphanage and held 130 children hostage Although they were released shortly afterwards without any hurt.

The casualties occurred when soldiers clashed with rebels, belonging to the family of George Atur breakaway, before throwing in the southern city. Atur, a former officer in the Army in southern Sudan, became a rebel leader after he lost the governorship of the province of Yongueli in elections last April for allegedly falsifying the results.

These attacks violate the cease-fire signed between the Army and the southern rebel faction, which broke away shortly before the referendum on self-determination of southern Sudan, in January, in which 98.83 percent of this region Sudanese opted for independence. Last Saturday, the Government of the Autonomous Region of Southern Sudan decided to suspend the dialogue with the regime in Khartoum to denounce a plot to overthrow the southern cabinet before independence of that region, scheduled for next July.

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