Sudan, South Sudan border clashes leave ‘many casualties’

A clash has left “many casualties” near the border between Sudan and South Sudan, a report says.

The fighting took place between members of Sudanese Arab Misseriya tribe and those of the South Sudanese-based Nuer tribe in the west of the Sudan’s Abyei region, AFP quoted an unnamed source as saying on Tuesday, without giving further details on the number of casualties.

On Monday, sixty-six Sudanese rebels were killed and more than 70 others were injured in clashes between the rebels of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Sudanese Army.

“The Sudanese armed forces have inflicted heavy losses on the rebels, killing about 66 and injured 70 others, who were pulled out to Bong area in South Sudan to receive medication,” Sudanese Army spokesman al-Sawarmy Khalid Saad stated, Xinhua reported.

On Sunday, Kabashy Bakheet, who is a leading member of Misseriya tribe, told Xinhua that six people were killed, and one was injured in an attack by the South Sudanese Army against members of the tribe near the border between Sudan and South Sudan.

Sudan accuses South Sudan, which seceded from the Republic of Sudan in July 2011, of supporting anti-government rebels operating in the Darfur region and the states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

South Sudan became independent on July 9, 2011, after decades of conflict with the north. The new oil-rich nation is one of the least developed countries in the world, with one in seven children dying before the age of five.