Sudan accuses Salva Kiir and deputy of aiding rebels

South Sudanese SPLA soldiers are pictured in Pageri in Eastern Equatoria state on August 20, 2015. Sudan has accused South Sudan aiding rebels fighting Khartoum forces. PHOTO | SAMIR BOL | AFP

What you need to know:

  • The SPLM-N is fighting Khartoum’s forces in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states.
  • South Sudan split from Sudan in 2011 under a peace agreement that ended a 22-year civil war.
  • South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, fell into a brutal civil war in December 2013 after President Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of planning a coup.

KHARTOUM

Sudan’s powerful security agency has accused South Sudan of holding talks with rebels fighting Khartoum forces with the goal of extending the war.

The National Intelligence and Security Service said South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, his deputy Taban Deng and top military commanders held meetings last week with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North rebel group.

The SPLM-N is fighting Khartoum’s forces in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states.

“These meetings were aimed at extending the war in Sudan. South Sudan continues to host these rebels,” NISS said.

“As part of this policy, Kiir and Deng held intensive meetings with SPLM-N in Juba between Wednesday and Saturday.”

FLEEING WAR

“We are warning the South Sudanese Government to stop intervening in Sudanese affairs.”

The statement bitterly contrasted South Sudan’s policy with Khartoum’s humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese refugees who have arrived, fleeing war and famine in their country.

“While Sudan has opened its borders to South Sudanese citizens, the government of South Sudan is responding by hosting Sudanese rebels,” NISS said.

Sudan authorities say during his visit to Khartoum in September last year, Deng gave assurances that Juba would expel all rebels fighting Sudan.

Armed revolts on both sides of the border have soured relations between the two countries.

PEACE AGREEMENT

South Sudan split from Sudan in 2011 under a peace agreement that ended a 22-year civil war.

More than two million South Sudanese had died in the war.

But Juba and Khartoum have traded accusations of supporting each other’s rebels on their territory, charges both countries deny.

South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, fell into a brutal civil war in December 2013 after President Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of planning a coup.

THOUSANDS KILLED

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since then and more than two and a half million people driven from their homes.

Sudan is hosting about 380,000 South Sudanese who have arrived since the war erupted, the United Nations’s refugee agency says.

The influx has swelled in recent months after South Sudan declared a famine in parts of the country.

In late March, Sudan opened a humanitarian corridor for delivering food assistance to thousands of South Sudanese suffering from famine in Unity State and Bahr El Ghazal.