Greywolf, News Article by AFP posted on June 09, 2001 at 17:45:40: EST (-5 GMT)
Sudanese rebels kill 244 government troops in oil region: SPLA
CAIRO, June 9 (AFP) -- The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) killed 244 Sudanese government troops during a raid in a southern oil-rich region, their spokesman said Saturday.
SPLA forces "Friday morning ambushed government forces in an oil prospecting region, northeast of Wangkei, in the southern al-Wihda province", Asmara-based Yasser Erman told AFP in Cairo.
He said that "244 Sudanese soldiers were killed in fighting which lasted over five hours", adding that government forces had also suffered heavy material damage.
On Thursday, Sudanese President Omar el-Beshir made a fresh appeal for mobilisation against the rebels, following the capture of several towns in the Bahr el-Ghazal region, west of al-Wihda where most of the country's oilfields are located.
The fighting has continued despite an agreement by Beshir and SPLA leader John Garang at a regional summit in Nairobi a week ago to work towards a comprehensive ceasefire after nearly two decades of war.
The SPLA, made up of various animist and Christian tribes from southern Sudan, has been fighting domination by the Muslim north since 1983. |
