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82 killed in armed clashes in south Sudan: SPLA

10 May 2011 18:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Eighty-two people were killed in recent armed clashes between southern Sudanese rebel militia and southern Sudan police forces, announced Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) on Tuesday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"A rebel military force on Sunday attacked a cattle compound in Warab State where the attack resulted in killings of 82 people, including 35 civilians," SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer told Xinhua.

He said the SPLA forces were pursuing the remnants of the rebel militia, adding that "we have earlier forced them out of Unity State but they attacked Warab State and our forces are still chasing them."

Violent incidents and armed clashes have recently increased between the SPLA (south Sudan army) and southern Sudanese armed militia just less than two months before south Sudan would be officially declared independent on coming July 9.

The deteriorating security conditions in the south prompts many concerns over the fate of the region which is ready to establish an independent state.

Around 99 percent of southern Sudanese have voted in favor of separation in a referendum on self-determination for southern Sudan, held in January 2010 in accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), inked between north and south Sudan in 2005.