Thousands flee as Sudan army seizes flashpoint town

Clashes erupted in Abyei between north and south Sudanese troops, the southern army said, just days after a deal to demilitarise the disputed area, and as Khartoum stepped up air strikes in neighbouring South Kordofan.Members of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF -- northern army) exchanged fire with the Sudan People's Liberation Army at the Kiir, or Bahr al-Arab, river, the southern army's spokesman told AFP, without providing details of casualties.

Sudan's army has launched repeated air strikes on the southern army in Unity state in a bid to seize oilfields there weeks before the south's independence, a southern army spokesman said.Philip Aguer, spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) of the south, said the SPLA was on "maximum alert" and strengthening its defensive positions, fearing the start of an invasion to seize the oilfields."SAF aircraft bombed the area of Yau, in Unity state, many times on Thursday," Aguer told AFP, referring to the north's Sudanese Armed Forces.

Sudanese government troops Saturday took control of the key town in the contested border region of Abyei after fierce fighting with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), UN and rebel sources said."The SAF have entered (the town) Abyei, there is still fighting but they have come with tanks, they are shooting and shooting," said SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer."Our police have been fighting but the SAF have sent many soldiers in," he added, speaking by phone from Juba, the capital of southern Sudan.

At least 16 people died when rebels attacked south Sudanese troops in troubled Jonglei state, breaking a ceasefire signed last month, a southern army spokesman said on Thursday."We are still waiting for full details of the casualties," said Philip Aguer, spokesman for the south's Sudan People?s Liberation Army (SPLA), adding that he feared the death toll would rise."The rebels launched their attacks on Wednesday at 1:00 pm (1000 GMT) killing four of our soldiers, but the army fought back and 12 of the attackers were killed," Aguer told AFP.

BAMAKO, Mali — The first days of the battle against Islamic extremists holding Mali’s north have left at least 11 civilians dead, including three children who threw themselves into a river and drowned trying to avoid falling bombs, a presidential spokesman said Sunday as troops from Mali’s neighbors are expected to join hundreds of French soldiers in the fight.

Clashes between the southern army and a rebel militia group in south Sudan's Upper Nile state have left more than 40 people dead, including seven soldiers, southern army spokesman Philip Aguer said on Monday."There was fighting on Sunday between the SPLA and a former militia group under Ulony, a militia commander who had been in the service of Khartoum for a long time," the spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Army told AFP.

Embattled fighters in Sudan's flashpoint northern state of Southern Kordofan said on Sunday that they had shot down two northern army planes, claims denied by Khartoum."On Friday, our troops shot down two SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) planes. One was an Antonov bomber in Kalkul and the other was a MiG Joint-3, in Kauda," said Gamar Delman, media advisor to former deputy governor Abdelaziz al-Hilu , a key member of the northern branch of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the ruling party in the south.

South Sudan's minister of cooperatives and rural development Jimmy Lemi Milla and his bodyguard were shot dead in Juba on Wednesday, the southern army's spokesman said, in what appeared to be a personal dispute."There was shooting at the ministries (complex), in which the minister of cooperatives and rural development was killed, as well as his bodyguard," the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) spokesman Philip Aguer told AFP.