Sudan rejects UN Security Council involvement in dispute with South

PanARMENIAN.Net - Sudan on Saturday, April 28 rejected UN Security Council involvement in efforts to end weeks of border clashes with South Sudan, which said it repelled an attack by Khartoum-backed rebels, AFP reports.

"Sudan confirms that it rejects any efforts to disturb the African Union role and take the situation between Sudan and South Sudan to the UN Security Council," Foreign Minister Ali Karti said after a month of deadly clashes which have raised fears of a wider war.

The African Union itself, in a decision last Tuesday, asked the Security Council to endorse its demand that the two Sudans halt hostilities in 48 hours, start talks within two weeks and complete a peace accord in three months.

But Karti - while expressing full confidence in the AU's role - said involvement by the Security Council would "give priority to a political position which was announced before and has a hidden agenda".

He did not elaborate.

The South Sudanese army said on Saturday it repelled an attack by rebels backed by Sudan outside Malakal, capital of the South's Upper Nile State.

"It was Sudan-supported militias that attacked SPLA (South Sudan army) positions" on Friday, Colonel Philip Aguer told AFP. He said his forces repulsed the attack, with an unknown number of casualties.

But the rebels claimed to have surrounded Malakal, saying in a statement: "The magnanimous forces of South Sudan Democratic Army (SSDA) launched Operation Ending Corruption and surrounded Malakal ... and captured its surroundings."

The Security Council on Thursday started talks on a resolution that could allow sanctions against Sudan and South Sudan if they do not meet the AU demands to end their fighting.