JUBA, SUDAN - Clashes spread across a key border region in southern Sudan on Saturday after a wave of mutinies among southerners in the northern army, leaving at least 41 people dead as Sudan begins to separate into two nations following a southern referendum on independence last month.
Official results show that 99 percent of southerners who voted backed forming their own country, and full independence is set to take effect in July. The referendum was the core provision of a U.S.-brokered 2005 peace deal between Sudan's Arab and Muslim north and the rebellious African and largely Christian south, ending a 22-year war that led to the deaths of 2 million people.
The recent violence broke out Thursday in Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile state, as the northern army, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), began withdrawing its remaining contingents in the south.
Former southern militiamen in the northern army mutinied against other southern soldiers and northern commanders, refusing to relocate to the north with all their weaponry. The fighting continued throughout the day Friday. At least 22 are confirmed dead, mostly soldiers, according to a U.N. official, who said the fighting had mostly stopped by Saturday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media on the matter.
Similar uprisings within the SAF ranks erupted Saturday in the Upper Nile towns of Melut, Paloich and Maban, said Malaak Ayuen, head of information in southern Sudan's army, the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).
"The fighting has spread across Upper Nile," said Ayuen, who said he could not yet give total casualty figures. The SPLA has stepped in to try to quell the fighting but was not part of the original clashes, according to officials.
On Saturday, the uprising began at Paloich, the base of Sudan's most productive oil fields, before spreading 20 miles to the SAF base in the town of Melut. There, at least 18 soldiers were killed, said Akuoc Teng Diing, the Melut County commissioner.
"The bodies are still being collected, and the number is rising," said Akuoc, speaking by phone from the clash site midday Saturday.
Although part of the northern army, the vast majority of the SAF soldiers in these bases are southerners. Many are longtime veterans who fought in the national army against the southern rebels.
But others only officially integrated into the SAF after the peace deal. During the war, they were part of a patchwork of tribal militias that controlled most of Upper Nile, supported by the northern Sudanese government in Khartoum to wage a proxy war against the SPLA and keep the key border region open for oil exploration.
According to officials, it is these former militiamen who are behind the uprisings.
With all SAF forces now required to withdraw to the north and the southerners in its ranks disarmed and discharged back to the south, the ex-militia elements are resisting the move.
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