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South Sudan accuses Sudan of airstrike on refugee camp

Varad

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South Sudan accuses Sudan of airstrike on refugee camp

YIDA CAMP, South Sudan - A refugee camp in South Sudan's Unity state was bombed on Thursday, South Sudan officials and witnesses said, threatening to raise tensions with Sudan in the violence-plagued border region.
Taban Deng, the governor of Unity state, accused Sudan of carrying out the attack. "These people (Khartoum) should be taken to book. They should adhere to international laws and regulations," he told reporters in Bentiu.
Sudan's armed forces denied they carried out the strike. In a statement before the bombing, South Sudan's president Salva Kiir talked of Sudan's "pending invasion" of its neighbor.
The United Nations confirmed the attack in an area where about 20,000 refugees are camped after fleeing violence in the Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile provinces north of the border, where rebels have been fighting Sudan's army since June.
"We can confirm that at least two bombs were dropped near Yida refugee camp, with an as yet unknown number of casualties," the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement e-mailed to the media.
The United States strongly condemned the attacks and urged both sides to resume negotiations to prevent the violence from escalating into a full-scale conflict.
"These provocative aerial bombardments greatly increase the potential for direct confrontation between Sudan and South Sudan. The United States demands the Government of Sudan halt aerial bombardments immediately," the White House said.
Violence along the poorly defined border since South Sudan's independence in July has strained ties between the two former civil war foes. They have accused one another of backing rebel groups on their sides of the border.
A Reuters correspondent heard a large explosion in the Yida refugee camp, then saw a crater about two meters wide, an unexploded bomb wedged in the side of a school building and a white aircraft flying north. Witnesses said there were three further explosions at 3 pm.
There were no immediate reports of any casualties at the camp, less than 25 kilometers from the border with Sudan. A spokesman for the Enough Project, an activist group that works to end genocide, said the group confirmed there were no dead or wounded.
"The refugees need to be safe and need to be protected. They ran away from war. They should not be pursued inside the territory of South Sudan," Deng said.
Al-Sawarmi Khalid, spokesman for Sudan's armed forces, said Sudan had not bombed anywhere in South Sudan's territory. "South Sudan is a state in the United Nations. We respect international law, and it's impossible that we would do that," he said.

South Sudan accuses Sudan of airstrike on refugee camp|World|chinadaily.com.cn
 
South Sudan seriously needs a new name. This "north" "south" directional names are boring.

We'l get used to it with time. After all N. Korea or S. Korea doesnt sound wierd to our ears now does it? Its pretty natural. I suppose the generation after us wont find it all wierd to say N or S Sudan just like we dont find it wierd to say N or S Korea.
 

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