Calls for restraint after Sudanese escalation

The leaders of Sudan and South Sudan accused each other on Thursday of wanting war, with each denying the other’s charge, as Sudanese war planes bombed a bridge in the South after days of fighting in a contested border region. The heavy clashes, the worst since South Sudan won independence in July after one of Africa’s longest civil wars, have brought the two former foes the closest to a return to outright war. The latest fighting started when Southern troops captured the strategic northern oil-producing district of Heglig, responsible for about half of the country’s crude output, triggering a halt to all production. On Thursday, Sudanese bombers targeted a strategic South Sudanese bridge on the edge of Bentiu, the capital of the oil-producing Unity border state and some 60 kilometres, from where the fighting has been raging. “The population is staying in their places; when the planes come they lie down,” said Gideon Gatpan, Unity information minister, adding that one person was killed. In a speech to parliament, President Salva Kiir said his northern counterpart, Omar Al Bashir, “has announced a total war with the the Republic of South Sudan. I always say we will not take the people of South Sudan back to war, but if we are being aggressed like this we will have to defend ourselves. “I am appealing to the citizens of the Republic of Sudan, especially the mothers, not to allow their children to be dragged into a meaningless war,” he added. “I will not order the forces to withdraw from Heglig,” Kiir told parliament, despite calls by the African Union and United Nations to pull out from the region seized from Khartoum’s army earlier this week. Southern troops seized the contested oil-producing border region from Khartoum’s army on Tuesday, prompting the latest fighting. World powers, including the African Union, United Nations, United States and China, has called for restraint and voiced deep concern at the escalation of violence. Ban urged Kiir to meet with Bashir, while the US State Department urged both sides to end “all hostilities.”