Recent fighting has raised fears over stability in the run up to the vote, scheduled for January 2011, on whether the south should split away and form a separate country.
The southern army (SPLA) said the militia fighters were loyal to Lam Akol, a southern opposition leader, and accused them of launching a raid on riverboats in the Upper Nile state last month. The army raid took place on Friday, it said. Akol, Sudan’s former foreign minister before he formed a breakaway party in the south, was not immediately available for comment. He has regularly denied leading a militia in the past.
Sudan’s south has been plagued by a series of uprisings by at least three renegade militia leaders angry at the results of April elections, which saw an overwhelming victory for the region’s Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM).
The referendum was originally promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with north Sudan. Army spokesman Kuol Diem Kuol said youths led an SPLA division to two hideouts used by a militia loyal to Akol’s SPLM- DC (Democratic Change) party in Upper Nile on Friday morning.
“The attacks were really a surprise to them. The SPLA destroyed the two camps. From the side of SPLM-DC seven were killed ... Our forces are now following the remnants and are determined to bring them to justice,” he said.
Four SPLA soldiers and many militia fighters were injured in the clash, he added.
Meanwhile, Egypt said on Sunday it will give the government of South Sudan $300 million for water and electricity projects as it seeks to build good will among countries along the Nile, the source of almost all of its water. Egypt and Sudan are on a collision course with a number of African states who in May signed an agreement to alter historic Nile water sharing arrangements. Egypt and Sudan have both rejected the agreement.
“In continuation of Egypt’s successful move toward Nile Basin states, especially Sudan, the Egyptian government has allocated over $300 million as a nonrefundable grant to the South Sudan government,” Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Mohamed Nasreddin Allam told Reuters.
The grant will be used for building potable water complexes, drilling 30 wells for underground water, setting up river ports and upgrading electricity and water networks, he said.
South Sudan has a separate government and will vote in January whether to become a separate state. It has not staked out an independent position on the new Nile basin agreement.
Egypt, already threatened by climate change, is closely watching hydro-electric dams in East Africa. The river is vital for all nine countries through which it flows.
