Gang, FYI....BTW Liria is exactly 1/2 way between Juba and Torit...
[ Latest News From Sudan At Sudan.Net ]
News Article by REUTERS on September 30, 1998 at 15:22:30:
ANALYSIS-Sudan rebels target garrison town
By Matthew Bigg
NAIROBI, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Sudan rebels are attempting to
break the government's grip on the southern garrison town of
Torit in their biggest offensive for 18 months, aid workers and
other sources said on Wednesday.
"The rebels are certainly going to attack Torit," said one
senior Nairobi-based aid worker in contact with the area.
"After such a long time planning, it would be a major
setback for them if they didn't follow through with this major
assault," he said in a view echoed by other relief workers with
long experience of Sudan.
John Garang, chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Army
(SPLA), has personally taken charge of the offensive, which
began in earnest on September 16 when his forces captured Liria
and the neighbouring garrisons at Ngolere and Rodondo, the aid
workers said.
The Khartoum government for its part announced on Monday a
general mobilisation of the population against what it said was
aggression by Uganda and Eritrea.
Sudan has previously accused Uganda, Eritrea and Ethiopia of
assisting the SPLA, a charge the three countries have denied.
President Lt-General Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, who took power
in a coup in 1989, said in an earlier speech in the southern
capital, Juba, there would be a "decisive and final" battle.
A Sudan government newspaper on Wednesday reported that
government departments had been ordered to slash spending by 50
per cent to help cover the cost of the fighting.
Al-Anbaa said Finance Minister Abdel Wahab Osman also
ordered working hours to be extended in the finance ministry and
customs and tax departments to improve revenue collection.
Juba has been a prime target for the SPLA throughout its
15-year war against the government. But the town is heavily
defended and SPLA strategy involves encircling the town.
Torit, 140 km (87 miles) southeast of Juba, holds historic
as well as strategic significance for the SPLA.
Not only is it a key to gaining control of the east bank of
the Nile, it was Garang's headquarters until June 1992 when it
was recaptured by the government.
Torit is little more than a sprawling village. Its civilian
population is around 12,000 although aid agencies say they have
made a contingency plan for the displacement of around 40,000
from the surrounding area should fighting intensify.
Aid workers said the SPLA was this week shelling the area
around Torit and there was fighting at the Kor Inglis bridge
west of the town.
In addition, the government had launched an extensive
campaign of aerial bombardment in the southern part of Eastern
Equatoria close to the Ugandan border.
One aid agency, in a list faxed to Reuters, reported eight
incidents in which civilian targets in the area were bombed by
the government using a high-flying Antonov between September 5
and 22, and eight incidents in August.
The SPLA has said little about the fighting, beyond
announcing the capture of Liria and dismissing the mobilisation.
"We are just cleaning the outskirts of Juba, which is what
is worrying them and leading to feverish preparations," Justin
Yaac, representative in Nairobi of the SPLA and its political
wing the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, told Reuters.
Yaac played down the importance of Torit, saying it was
simply one of a number of towns the SPLA had targeted in its
drive "to obliterate all the defences around Juba."
The fighting in Eastern Equatoria appears to violate a
unilateral ceasefire in the south announced on August 4 by the
government.
A separate three-month ceasefire, which applies to Bahr el
Ghazal region and parts of other provinces affected by famine,
is set to end on October 15.
The SPLA demands self-determination for six southern
provinces and exemption from Islamic law. The government has
conceded the principle of self-determination but favours a
unitary state. The war has been fueled by a host of smaller
ethnic and political conflicts in the vast country.
In Khartoum, the official SUNA news agency said a
pro-government Sudanese militia has vowed to stop clashing with
a rival faction.
It said militia leader Paulino Matip announced a truce with
Riek Machar's South Sudan Defence Force (SSDF).
Fighting between the long-standing rivals in oil-rich Unity
state has worried the government, which has stopped supplying
them with arms since their conflict intensified in January. |
