South Sudan Says It Shot Down Sudan Jet Amid Clashes - New York Times

KAMPALA, Uganda — South Sudan said that it shot down a north Sudanese fighter jet in its territory on Wednesday, as the two national armies continue to clash in a dispute that international observers worry may be inching closer to war.

The jet, a MIG-29, was one of a number of Sudanese warplanes dropping bombs on South Sudan’s oil-rich Unity State, a South Sudanese military spokesman said, a region that has been at the epicenter of violent tensions along the border between Sudan and South Sudan.

“Their planes have been bombing our positions,” said the spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer, “and finally one was shot down by our defenses.”

Colonel Aguer did not specify the equipment that South Sudan used to down the fighter jet, and said it had crashed in an area between the two nations’ front lines, adding that South Sudan had sent out patrol units to try to recover the plane.

A Sudanese military spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Tensions between these two nations have been brewing. South Sudan seceded from Sudan last year, after decades of civil war. But a new rebellion has sprung up inside Sudan, one that Sudan has accused South Sudan of supporting.

The Sudanese insurgents, who have historical ties to South Sudan, have said they are bent on toppling the Sudanese government in Khartoum, and Sudan has been accused of bombing inside South Sudanese territory as an extension of its military campaign against the insurgents.

Adding to the hostilities, an oil row has also broken out between the two nations. Both rely on South Sudan’s oil to fuel both economies, but South Sudan has accused Sudan of stealing its oil and then shut off its oil production in protest.

Talks have been going on between Sudan and South Sudan in Ethiopia, but in the meantime the two nations’ ground forces clashed last week in Unity State and South Sudan has accused the north of bombing its oil fields. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was scheduled to visit South Sudan recently, but canceled after fighting broke out.

The United States has said it is “alarmed” by the brewing hostilities between the two nations, and President Obama spoke directly with President Salva Kiir Mayardit of South Sudan this week, the White House said, condemning the violence.

“Both sides must exert the greatest restraint in this situation,” the White House said in a separate statement last week.

Colonel Aguer dismissed the possibility of a return to formal war, but noted that fighting was “the reality.”

“What is war?” Colonel Aguer asked. “There has been fighting for more than six months now.”