By Rodney Muhumuza
Associated Press
April 16, 2012
This photo of Saturday, April 14, 2012, shows the aftermath of a bombing by the Sudanese Air Force in Bentiu, South Sudan . Two Sukhoi jet fighters dropped 6 bombs in the area, killing 5 and wounding 4 others. Two Sudanese warplanes dropped "many bombs" Monday April 16, 2012, on the oil-rich city of Heglig, as long-range artillery targeted southern army positions in the disputed town, said southern army spokesman Col. Philip Aguer. He did not give a casualty figure. He also said Monday that Sudan's air force killed five civilians in aerial attacks Sunday over Heglig. Aguer also said that the town of Bentiu in South Sudan's Unity State was hit and that the conflict has spread to several southern states bordering Sudan, including Western Bahr el Ghazal. (AP Photo/Michael Onyiego)
Most people think of Southern Sudan as a newly developed sovereign nation developed to protect the people being killed by the Sudanese government. That is not entirely accurate.
Southern Sudan has been an 'autonomous region' within Sudan since Sudan itself broke away from Egypt in 1956.
The Southern Autonomous Region was officially declared in 1972 after a long civil war within Sudan. It is this region which has declared its autonomy from the nation of Sudan because of the massacres. When the autonomous region was officially designated, it was not about oil, it was about ethnic freedoms. The oil is a bit of a perk to the people of Southern Sudan.
The Southern Sudanese need to enter into an agreement to provide oil to the North for a period of time while its government becomes stable. It is the right thing to do and it will save lives. There does not have to be a continuous war between these two peoples. They can settle a peace based in sharing oil until some future time frame whereby Southern Sudan will no longer be a part of a peace agreement to allow for transitions of economies. At that point, Sudan would be no different than any other customer of Southern Sudanese oil.
...Two Sudanese warplanes dropped "many bombs" Monday on the oil-rich city of Heglig, as long-range artillery targeted southern army positions in the disputed town, said southern army spokesman Col. Philip Aguer. He did not give a casualty figure. He also said Monday that Sudan's air force killed five civilians in aerial attacks Sunday over Heglig.
Aguer also said that the town of Bentiu in South Sudan's Unity State was hit and that the conflict has spread to several southern states bordering Sudan, including Western Bahr el Ghazal.
He said the rival armies had not yet engaged in physical fighting this week.
"Today they bombed our positions in Heglig and the oil installations in Heglig," he said Monday. "We are waiting for them in the killing zone and they are not coming."
But he said the north's army is now 23 kilometers (some 14 miles) from Heglig, which is claimed by Sudan but was seized last week by South Sudanese forces in fierce fighting that southern officials say killed at least 240 Sudanese soldiers and 19 South Sudanese troops....
After decades of hatred and atrocities, it is time to find a peace that will last and save lives.
After decades of hatred and atrocities, it is time to find a peace that will last and save lives.
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — A Muslim mob set ablaze a Catholic church frequented by Southern Sudanese in the capital Khartoum, witnesses and media reports said on Sunday.
The church in Khartoum's Al-Jiraif district was built on a disputed plot of land, but the Saturday night incident appeared to be part of the fallout from ongoing hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan over control of an oil town on their ill-defined border.
Sudan and South Sudan have been drawing closer to a full-scale war in recent months over the unresolved issues of sharing oil revenues and the disputed border.
Last week, South Sudanese troops seized Heglig, which the southerners call Panthou, sending Sudanese troops fleeing. The Khartoum government later claimed to have regained control of the town....
