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Army Fights SPLA

The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
December 1, 2006
Posted to the web December 1, 2006

By Grace Matsiko, Emmanuel Gyezaho, Agness Nandutu & Jude Luggya

HUNDREDS were feared dead yesterday after sporadic clashes between the Sudanese
Army and the former southern rebels, the Sudan People's Liberation Army [SPLA].
The fighting in the southern town of Malakal began three days ago and escalated
into full-scale warfare yesterday.
Oddly, this is the first sustained fighting between the two warring sides since
a January 2005 north-south peace deal. But while the development has forced UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan to express deep concern, the clashes stand to
throw the Kampala-LRA peace talks off balance.
International Affairs Minister, Henry Okello Oryem told Daily Monitor yesterday
that Kampala was "closely watching the situation."
"We have made contact with Juba and the office of the mediator. He [Riek
Machar] tells us that everything is on course and we should be on standby to go
back to Juba," Oryem said. "Whatever is happening will not affect the peace
process."
However, a senior former SPLA rebel officer told Reuters yesterday "more than
hundreds have been lost. The Sudan army sustained very heavy casualties and
civilians were caught in the crossfire."
Elias Waya Nyipuocs, said militias belonging to the Sudan Armed Forces attacked
the SPLA and the local commissioner of Malakal took refuge in the SAF barracks.
"We were forced to overrun the barracks and the SAF fought side by side with
the militia against the SPLA," he said.
South Sudan Vice President Riek Machar yesterday called for investigations into
the military altercations and said everything is being done to restore order in
Malakal. GOSS President Salva Kiir cut short his visit to South Africa due to
the fighting. Gunfire was being heard near Juba yesterday. A top commander of
the Sudanese army in Malakal was reportedly killed yesterday.
On Wednesday, Salva Kiir visited the battleground to assess the situation but
it flared up yesterday with eyewitnesses speaking of bodies lying in the
streets and of looting and sporadic gunfire.
The United Nations has temporarily evacuated about 240 of its staff from the
gunfire-engulfed town but among those evacuated was Mr. Patrick Awai, a Ugandan
senior police officer working with the UN police, a Sudan military source said
yesterday.
Awai, a former OC at Kampala's Central Police Station was evacuated to Khartoum
together with other UN staff. Two Ugandans, identified by the Sudan military as
Mr Godfrey Makyeme, a former detective in the Uganda Police force and Mr David
Ariko, a UN Police sector commander in Malakal were still trapped behind battle
lines in Malakal.
Makyeme was reported on a "Long-Range" exercise with other UN officers outside
Malakal and was told to remain put until further notice. Located on the banks
of the Nile near Sudan's oilfields, Malakal is one of the most tense towns in
the south.
During 20 years of civil war, Khartoum armed numerous tribal militias in the
area to enable it to begin extracting oil. The violence breaks the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed between Khartoum and the SPLA. However
Oryem said the sooner Kampala and the LRA sign a comprehensive peace agreement
the sooner Sudan's north-south CPA will be consolidated.
"It will also strengthen the comprehensive peace agreement and also solve the
many clashes, the LRA has been having with the SPLA in southern Sudan," he
said.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Ugandan side to Juba, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda
told MPs yesterday that the Lords Resistance Army risks "more problems" if they
do not assemble at the designated South Sudan assembly points.
"So long as members of the LRA do not assemble at either Owiny-ki-Bul or Ri-
Kwangba, as per the cessation of hostilities agreement, they will be prone to
getting into more problems," Rugunda told the House' Defence Committee.
Rugunda also scoffed at reports that the rebels had suspended their
participation at the talks because of a reported clash with the UPDF that had
claimed three of their fighters, and said, "this is routine. They [LRA] will
come back."


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