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Rebels kill one official, five others in Sudan’s South Kordofan State

07 July 2012 00:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Rebels on Friday killed a prominent local official and five others in Sudan’s South Kordofan State which has been witnessing armed clashes between Sudanese army and fighters of Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA)/ northern sector, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The agency said the SPLA forces on Friday killed Ibrahim Mohamed Balandia, head of the legislative council in South Kordofan State and Faisal Bashir, secretary general of the strategic planning council in the state besides four others who were in their company.

The South Kordofan region, on the border between north and south Sudan, has been witnessing armed clashes between the Sudanese army and the SPLA/northern sector since June 5 last year.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM)/ northern sector said the issue of the security arrangements was behind the escalation in South Kordofan because the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudanese army have adopted security arrangements without consulting with the movement in a bid to disarm the SPLA, which led to the recent clashes.

Khartoum earlier ordered the SPLA forces to leave all the areas within north Sudan territories or disarm the movement’s fighters if they wanted to stay in the north.