Juba: Khartoum broke truce

Sudan has violated the non-aggression agreement with South Sudan by bombarding the town of Jau, local officials in South Sudan say. Col. Kella Dual Kueth, acting Sudanese People’s Liberation Army spokesman, said the attack on the Unity state community left four SPLA soldiers critically injured, but no fatalities had been reported, The Citizen newspaper in Juba reported Monday. “There has been air raid on Jau last Friday and yesterday [Sunday] consecutively,” Pariang County Commissioner Miabek Lang Miading told The Citizen in a telephone interview. Kueth further accused Khartoum of border incursion and doubted the non-aggression agreement would hold. “This agreement may not work, paper hasn’t yet reached to our office for verification whether it was orally or inked understanding,” he said. The county commissioner also charged Khartoum had violated the agreement, which requires the two sides to respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and forbids military attacks. “Sudan dishonored the Friday agreements,” Miading said. Newly independent South Sudan suspended its oil production last month in retaliation for a decision by Sudan to seize a portion of its crude exported through the North’s pipeline to satisfy payments it claims the South owed. Each side accuses the each other of supporting rebel forces operating in the two countries.