Arab League calls emergency meeting on 2 Sudans

The Arab League said Thursday that it would hold an emergency meeting over the increasing violence between Sudan and South Sudan. The South reported new skirmishes even as Sudan’s president increased his threats of war toward the South. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that South Sudan’s seizure of an oil field in neighboring Sudan was an “illegal act” and called on both countries to stop fighting. Sudan President Omar al-Bashir said the recent violence has “revived the spirit of jihad” in Sudan. South Sudan said it had repulsed four attacks from Sudan over a 24-hour period as fighting on the border showed no signs of slowing. Acting on a request by Sudan, the Arab League scheduled an emergency meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo next week to discuss the violence, Deputy Arab League Secretary-General Ahmad bin Helli said. The league earlier called on South Sudan to withdraw from the oil-rich Heglig area that southern troops invaded and took over last week. Despite the threats from Sudan, a southern government spokesman said South Sudan was only defending its territory and considers Sudan a “friendly nation.” South Sudan military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said three of the attacks occurred Wednesday and one Thursday. He did not give a death toll. South Sudan broke away from Sudan last year after a self-determination vote for independence. That vote was guaranteed in a mediated end to decades of civil war between the two sides. But the sides never fully agreed where their shared border lay, nor did they reach agreement on how to share oil wealth that is pumped from the border region. Instead, the two countries have seen a sharp increase in violence in recent weeks, especially around the oil-producing town of Heglig. Both sides claim Heglig as their own. It lies in a region where the border was never clearly defined. Aguer said southern troops repulsed one attack by Sudanese troops near Heglig Wednesday and two attacks in Northern Bahr al-Ghazal state. One was repulsed in Western Bahr al-Ghazal state early Thursday, he said. Bashir continued his hard-line rhetoric Thursday in an address to a “popular defense” brigade headed to the Heglig area. The ceremony was held in Al-Obeid, in northern Kordofan. “Sudan will cut off the hand that harms it,” he said. South Sudan government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin said South Sudan does not consider itself at war with Sudan, but he said the South is defending territory it believes it owns based on borders outlined in 1956 by British colonialists. “Up to now we have not crossed even an inch into Sudan,” Benjamin said.