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Sudan sends complaint against S.Sudan to U.N.

06 November 2011 03:18 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Sudan said Saturday it had submitted a new complaint against South Sudan to the United Nations Security Council, accusing it of supporting rebels in two border states, in a sign of new tensions between the two former civil war foes, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Sudan recognized South Sudan as an independent country when it broke away from Khartoum on July 9 this year after a referendum agreed under a 2005 peace agreement.

But tensions have risen since then as north and south blame each other for violence on both sides of their poorly-marked border. They have also failed to agree how to share oil revenues and find a solution for the disputed region of Abyei.

Saturday, a spokesman for the foreign ministry said Sudan had submitted a fresh complaint against South Sudan to the Security Council accusing it of supporting rebels in the two northern border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

South Sudan "continues providing (rebels) with anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles as well as with ammunition, landmines and mortars," the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SUNA.

Sudan filed a similar complaint in August.

The Sudanese army has been fighting for months against rebels of the northern wing of the SPLM in both states. The SPLM is the ruling party in South Sudan. It denies any support for the rebels north of the border.

For its part, South Sudan has repeatedly accused Sudan of supporting rebels operating in the area south of the border. Sudan denies the charges.

Diplomats had hoped bilateral tensions would ease after southern President Salva Kiir visited Khartoum in October, his first trip to the north since independence.

Kiir and his northern counterpart Omar Hassan al-Bashir pledged during the visit to find solutions for all disputes and set up several committees to make progress, but little has happened since then.