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Fighting spills into south Sudan amid crisis talks

13 June 2011 22:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Fighting in volatile South Kordofan has spilled across the border into the south, the United Nations said Monday, as the country’s leaders pressed on with crisis talks on the conflict in central Sudan, APA reports quoting AFP.
"Fighting including bombardments and artillery shelling has been reported in 11 of the 19 localities in Southern Kordofan state, and has spread to Pariang County in Unity State, southern Sudan," the UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said.
South Sudanese officials have been saying the northern army has killed civilians in air strikes south of the border but UN sources had previously insisted the bombing was restricted to the north-south border area.
The OCHA report came on the second day of crisis talks between the leaders of the soon-to-split nation in Addis Ababa, aimed at defusing the conflict in central Sudan and resolving outstanding issues between the north and south.
For eight days, heavy clashes have raged between the Sudanese Armed Forces (northern army -- SAF) and northern members of the former southern rebel army (the SPLA) in South Kordofan, the adjacent state north of the disputed border.
The south is due to proclaim full independence on July 9, under a peace deal after decades of conflict with the north, and the fighting threatens to overshadow the historic event, particularly if the southern army is drawn in.
Early on Monday, the SAF carried out another air strike in the border region of Jau, which is a gathering point for SPLA troops fleeing the north, UN sources told AFP, without giving details of casualties.
South Kordofan is a heavily-armed state with strong links to the south, especially among the indigenous Nuba peoples who fought on the side of southern rebels, even though their homeland, the Nuba Mountains, is in the north.
Fears are growing among civilians of intensified air strikes in former rebel strongholds, with reports of bombing in the Haiban area where the county hospital last week received the bodies of at least 10 killed in the fighting.
"The mood of the people is one preparing for a full return to war," said one aid worker in the Nuba Mountains, who asked not to be named for security reasons.
"People are scared, they are terrified every time the Antonov (bombers) fly overhead, they are running for shelter, and many are moving into the hills, where they feel safer."
Up to 63,500 people have been displaced by the clashes across South Kordofan so far, according to provisional UN estimates.
The UN mission in Sudan, which is trying to relocate its non-essential staff outside South Kordofan, says the closure of the state’s main airport since Friday has "seriously curtailed" its humanitarian efforts.
Sudan President Omar al-Bashir and south Sudan leader Salva Kiir have since Sunday been holding talks in Addis Ababa on the crises in South Kordofan and Abyei, another border region.
"The hopes and fears of millions of Sudanese are in their hands," said the British ambassador to Sudan, Nicholas Kay.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday endorsed the idea of a peacekeeping force in the disputed Abyei region and encouraged both sides in the conflict to take up an Ethiopian offer of troops.