KHARTOUM: Mortar fire struck the capital of Sudan’s war-torn South Kordofan state yesterday, the United Nations said.
“To our knowledge there were five mortar shells that landed in and around the town” of Kadugli, Damian Rance of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told AFP.
Residents also reported shelling in the government-controlled capital of the state where the army has been battling rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) since June last year.
Rance said all UN staff in Kadugli, both Sudanese and foreign, were moved “as a precautionary measure” to a base between Kadugli and the local airport.
The base is used by a UN peacekeeping mission, UNISFA, which operates in the Abyei region contested by Sudan and South Sudan.
Rance could not say how many UN personnel were involved, but the UN’s World Food Program said that 15 Sudanese staff from its office, eight of their family members, and one international employee were taken to the UNISFA base.
Neither the rebels nor Sudan’s military had any immediate information about the incident — rare for the state capital — which comes after Sudan and South Sudan late last month signed deals on security and cooperation that they hailed as ending their countries’ conflict.
The neighbors fought in their border regions in March and April, sparking fears of wider war and leading to a UN Security Council resolution ordering a ceasefire and the settlement of unresolved issues, under African Union mediation.
The deals signed include a key agreement on a demilitarized border buffer zone, where troops must withdraw 10 kilometers (six miles) from the de facto line of control along the undemarcated frontier.
The buffer zone is also designed to cut support for rebels in South Kordofan and Blue Nile state, where the SPLM-N has also been fighting. Khartoum accuses Juba of backing the rebels and the South, in turn, accuses Sudan of arming rebels in its territory.
Mortar fire hits capital of Sudan’s S. Kordofan
