South Sudan Says Sudan Strikes Again - New York Times

KAMPALA, Uganda — As aerial bombardments continued in the border region between Sudan and South Sudan on Tuesday, the South Sudanese president, Salva Kiir, met with President Hu Jintao of China, a crucial friend to both nations, saying that Sudan had “declared war” on his country, a spokesman for the South said.

Sudanese warplanes dropped bombs on South Sudanese villages near the border late Monday and into Tuesday morning, South Sudan’s minister of information, Barnaba Benjamin Marial, said. One attack targeted the village of Tor, he said; another took aim at the village of Panakuach.

“They come and they bomb. If Juba was at the border, they would fly over and bomb Juba,” he said, referring to South Sudan’s capital. “When you are attacked, what do you do?”

Months of tensions reached a peak when South Sudan captured the important oil-producing region of Heglig from Sudan this month, continuing a tug of war over the resource that powers the economies of both nations.

Sudan retook control of Heglig last week, but the reports of new attacks came a day after Sudan faced blistering criticism for bombing the South Sudanese regional capital of Bentiu, apparently leaving several dead. On Tuesday, that criticism continued, with Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, saying, “We strongly condemn the Sudan’s military incursion into South Sudan.”

A Sudanese military spokesman denied that Sudan had bombed South Sudan, saying that while forces had bombed border regions, the fighting had not crossed into South Sudan.

“Now we are at the borders,” said the spokesman, Al-Sawarmi Khalid. “We will not continue to enter into South Sudan.”

As for recent remarks by President Omar al-Hassan Bashir of Sudan that he would drive the South’s leaders from power, Mr. Khalid said, “Our army has not taken any orders to go to South Sudan.”

The violence, arguably the worst since a 2005 peace agreement ended decades of civil war and paved the way for South Sudan to become independent, came as Mr. Kiir conducted a state visit to China, a critical trade partner for the two nations.

The visit was planned long before the violence erupted this month, South Sudanese officials have said, but the conflict with Sudan was at the forefront of the trip.

“This war is not just about Heglig,” Mr. Marial said. “The war is about the remaining outstanding issues of the comprehensive peace agreement; it is about the idea that Sudan wants to occupy our oil fields.”

While a host of nations and international organizations have condemned the violence, China could play a unique diplomatic role.

China, a longtime friend to Sudan, has been accused of supplying weapons to Sudan that have been used in Darfur, despite an international arms embargo.

But China is also close to South Sudan, which is seeking Chinese investment for an oil pipeline through Kenya that would break South Sudan’s dependence on one that runs through Sudan. South Sudan halted its oil production in January after accusing Sudan of stealing its oil from the pipeline.