Sudanese official condemns clashes in S. Kordofan

The popular movement in south Sudan assumes the responsibility of the recent clashes in South Kordofan State, Secretary of Political Mobilization at Sudan's National Congress, Haj Majid Suwar said. The movement deployed armed forces carried out assassinations and aggressions against a number of citizens in the embattled city of Kadugli near Sudan’s disputed internal border that forced tens of thousands of people to flee, he said in a press statement today. Heavy fighting in Kadugli, the capital of Southern Kordofan erupted on Sunday, just weeks before the scheduled separation of southern Sudan from the north on July 9. Suwar said that the attack "constitutes a direct violation" of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in January 2005 between the North and South, which provides for the withdrawal of "all the forces that are not authorized" from Abyei. He called for negotiations between Dinka Ngok and Misseriya elders in Kadugli. The United States on Friday condemned reported acts of violence in Southern Kordofan that target individuals based on their ethnicity and political affiliation, the White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Friday, calling for a ceasefire. The perpetrators should "immediately halt these actions and be held accountable for their crimes," he added.