SPLM

The Satellite Sentinel Project, or SSP, released two new reports, documenting the latest developments in the conflict raging on the border between Sudan and South Sudan.

The conflict has become increasingly violent since the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, or SPLA, advanced on Heglig on April 9. Heglig (known as Panthou to the South Sudanese) is a disputed territory, with both nations claiming that it is within their borders. The area provides an estimated half of Sudan’s oil resources, making it an economically critical location.

Posted by Jenn Christian

Today, nearly 18 months since the start of the post-referendum negotiations process between the Government of Sudan, or GoS, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Government of the Republic of South Sudan, or SPLM/RSS, the two parties, and the greater international community find themselves at a cross-road as tensions escalate between Khartoum and Juba and war, at times, seems more like a probability than a possibility.

Last week, the Satellite Sentinel Project, or SSP, reported on what appeared to be mechanized units of the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, pointed toward the rebel stronghold of Kurmuk in Sudan’s Blue Nile state.

Within hours of the Satellite Sentinel Project’s warning about a possible pending attack on the town of Kurmuk, there is a report indicating that the U.N. mission and compound of Save the Children were targeted in a government bombing campaign. According to a spokesman for the opposition SPLM-North, quoted by AFP, an Antonov bombed the town, which is under SPLA-N control.

As violence continues in Blue Nile and South Kordofan, the leader of the group fighting Sudanese government forces in the two border states called for a “holistic, integrated approach” to Sudan’s multiple conflicts.

With yet another Sudanese agreement dishonored, tensions between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, or SPLM-N, continue to rise in the country’s border states, and violence threatens to spread from South Kordofan to Blue Nile.

JUBA, South Sudan -- The embattled area of the Nuba Mountains is squarely situated in North Sudan, but the recent separation of the South poses new challenges for what in the past two months has become the region’s latest deadly front. As the festive mood surrounding the South’s independence celebration tapered off, many journalists in town for the big day turned attention – quietly, given the immense sensitivities – toward the conflict unfolding just over the new international border.