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| Africa Horn |
| Troops from Sudan's north, south clash in Abyei |
| 2011-06-16 |
| [Arab News] Troops from Sudan's north and south clashed on Wednesday in the disputed region of Abyei, as a southern military front man accused Khartoum of trying to expand the territory the north controls. Casualties were reported after the clash near what southerners call the Kiir River, but southern front man Col. Philip Aguer said he didn't immediately have an exact casualty toll. Abyei -- a fertile land near oil fields -- is the major flashpoint between the north and the south as the south prepares to secede and become the world's newest nation on July 9. Aguer said the northern troops tried to cross the river on Wednesday. A UN spokeswoman said there were conflicting reports indicating that either northern troops or southern troops tried to cross. Violence has spiked ahead of the south's independence declaration, prompting US President Barack B.O.Obama on Tuesday to warn that leaders in the north and south "must live up to their responsibilities." Obama said the Khartoum-based government "must prevent a further escalation of this crisis by ceasing its military actions immediately, including aerial bombardments, forced displacements and campaigns of intimidation." Wednesday's fighting in Abyei came a day after the northern military bombed the north-south border region of South Kordofan, including at least one bomb that landed near a UN outpost. A UN spokeswoman, Hua Jiang, said 11 bombs were dropped in South Kordofan, five of which went kaboom!. One bomb -- caught in a vivid photograph -- went kaboom!near a UN airstrip. "There have been some artillery shellings and small arms firing near Kadugli town and certainly the fighting since is moving closer to our headquarters in Kadugli," she said. Jiang said 60,000 residents have been displaced by the violence, and that the UN is providing food and water to about 40,000 of them. However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... the UN has been unable to fly in supplies for days. The UN refugee agency UNHCR accused Sudan on Tuesday of blocking aid deliveries in South Kordofan. UNHCR said north Sudanese authorities have for almost a week blocked planes from landing at Kadugli, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of the provisional border. Militias allied with the north have also set up roadblocks in Kadugli to stop overland access, it said. Jiang said Wednesday that a road was opened to the UN on Tuesday. She said the situation in the region remains "tense and unpredictable" but that there were not any reports of major festivities on Wednesday. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Two problems: One is the enormous difficulties in logistics to support an effective force over the vast territories. I don't think anybody can do it. Second, to do it would require mostly white troops--American with a few other Anglosphere guys--to kill huge, enormous numbers of black guys. Since in many cases, the weapon of choice is the bush knife, machete, panga, anybody doing ag work is a suspect. But there's no capacity for arresting them, detaining them, and investigating them. So either they're shot on sight or let go and nobody knows what they'll be up to later on. In addition, in the west, the most obvious victim is the good guy. But in the real world, the victims are just one side of buttheads who got caught. They'll catch the other side tomorrow. No good guys. The innocent victims are, in between being victimized, rooting for victimizing the other guys. It would require an enormous logistical effort and a huge amount of killing--those guys won't stop because the UN says so, they like that stuff--to end this. Then permanent occupation with more killing as necessary. And, of course, the world will be condemning us as racist, imperialist murderers. |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2011-06-16 18:06 |
| #2 I don't want to sound too liberal however, when something as inhumane as the Sudanese situation goes on as long as it has without any apparent collective angst in the media, mainstream or otherwise, you have to wonder if it is because of the ethnicity of the combatants. To me it smacks of collective racism for the UN, NATO, and the collective talking heads of the media to not be foaming at the mouth and chewing on their Armani ties. When is someone going to pay attention, I mean REAL attention to the vast crimes that are going on everyday in Africa. Nigeria, the Congo, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Somolia, Rwanda and Zimbabwe go on everyday with mass murder, rape and torture. Is it because the perps are black and heaven forbid we are not supposed to say anything negative about black leaders? Or worse, is it because the liberal ninnies in the foreign ministries of Europe cut these countries loose from their colonial ties without proper preparation? |
| Posted by: Bill Clinton 2011-06-16 10:29 |
| #1 That idiot Bashir. |
| Posted by: newc 2011-06-16 00:56 |