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| A woman in South Kordofan. Fleeing air attacks from Sudanese forces, thousands have left their homes for makeshift shelters in the Nuba Mountains. |
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s
decree gives authorities in the border areas wide powers to make
arrests and set up special courts. It was issued a day after Sudan
detained three foreigners and a South Sudanese near the border and
accused them of spying for South Sudan, a charge the South denies.
South Sudan, meanwhile, said Sunday that it would remove its security
forces from the contested region of Abyei in response to demands from
the African Union and the United Nations Security Council. “We are not
occupying any contested area,” said South Sudan’s minister of
information, Barnaba Marial Benjamin.
But reports of fighting continued through the weekend. On Saturday,
Sudanese aircraft bombed Panakuach, a town near the border in Unity
State, Mr. Benjamin said. And on Sunday, South Sudan’s army said clashes
with what it called a militia group backed by Sudan left 21 people dead
in Malakal, near the border. Mr. Benjamin called the militia a
“mixture” of Sudanese forces and southern militiamen.
South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July last year after a referendum. A
number of pressing issues, however, have not been resolved, including
the demarcation of the border, the status of each nation’s citizens in
the other’s country, and the sharing of the revenues from the region’s
oil.
Hostilities between the two sides erupted this month when South Sudan
captured the important oil-producing region of Heglig from Sudan, which
soon regained control of it. Sudanese officials have accused the South
of using foreign fighters in Heglig and supporting insurgents seeking to
topple the government in Khartoum. Both sides deny that they are
supporting rebel militias.
In this tense climate on Sunday, Sudan declared the state of emergency
in the border districts of the states of South Kordofan, White Nile and
Sennar “to achieve security and guarantee the protection of our citizens
and repel any attacks,” according to the Ministry of Information.
On Saturday, Sudan said it had arrested a Briton, a Norwegian, a South
African and a South Sudanese, accusing them of illegally entering Heglig
to spy for South Sudan. Col. Sawarmy Khaled, a Sudanese Army spokesman,
said the arrests proved that South Sudan was using foreign fighters,
The Associated Press reported.
South Sudan denied the allegations and said the men were working with
the United Nations and aid groups to clear land mines and had lost their
way in the remote territory. On Sunday, a Norwegian humanitarian
organization, Norwegian People’s Aid,
confirmed that one of its employees, John Soerboe, was detained while
on a mine-clearing mission in the area with representatives from South
Sudan and a United Nations agency, The Associated Press reported.
South Sudan’s decision to withdraw from Abyei, which lies between South
Sudan and Sudan and is claimed by both, was taken “to reaffirm and
demonstrate with concrete measures” the government’s “true commitment to
finding a peaceful solution” to the conflict, according to South
Sudan’s letter to the United Nations, as reported by Reuters on Sunday.
A referendum was supposed to be held last year to decide what the people
of Abyei wanted, but it was shelved because of disputes over who could
vote.
Before the south’s succession last year, the northern Sudanese military marched
in May into Abyei, forcing thousands of people out. But South Sudanese
police — accused by Sudan of being soldiers in police uniforms — have
remained in different parts of the larger Abyei region.
But the conflict is also an economic war, with each side largely
operating without the oil revenue the nations have long been negotiating
over how to share. Most of the oil wells are in the south, but the
facilities to export the oil are in the north.
The increasingly martial tone of conflict extends to a proposed law that
Sudan’s National Assembly plans to debate on Monday. The legislation
would make it illegal for Sudanese merchants to trade with South Sudan
and would impose stiff penalties on violators. It is called the
Repelling of the Aggression and the Holding the Aggressors Accountable
Law of 2012.
China, a close investment partner for both Sudan and South Sudan,
has become a pivotal player in what the International Crisis Group
called a “delicate dance” in a report this month. South Sudan’s
president, Salva Kiir, visited China last week, partly in hopes of
locking down an investment deal for an alternative oil pipeline that
would export South Sudan’s oil through Kenya.
Instead, China will give South Sudan $8 billion “for development,
telecommunications, infrastructure, roads, agriculture,” Mr. Benjamin,
the information minister, said.
Source: Newyork Times