Published: July 06, 2008

New Conflict Zone Sprouting in Sudan

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A new conflict area is emerging in Sudan, after deadly clashes in the Abyei region were quelled last month.

The Sudanese army says the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) from the south is amassing troops on the eastern border with Ethiopia near the Blue Nile, in what observers fear could become a new conflict zone, according to the London-based A-Sharq Al-Awsat.

The Sudanese army said it had information that the SPLM had brought into the area large quantities of weapons through the border with Ethiopia. The army said it had noted since Friday heightened military movements and deployment of armored vehicles near the town of Karmak, where the main artery in the area is located.

Officials in the Blue Nile district confirmed the entrance of heavy armored vehicles and arms, including anti-aircraft weapons, and said the weapons had been brought in by the SPLM without the knowledge of the security forces.

Observers say this heightened military deployment could threaten the fragile peace agreement signed between north and south Sudan in 2005, which ended a 20-year civil war.

At least 22 people were killed and 90,000 were displaced in clashes in May in Abyei, between forces from the central government's army and forces from the semi-autonomous south.

Abyei is an oil-rich area near the boundary between north and south, and is claimed by both the Arab north and the Christian and animist south.

A comprehensive peace agreement was signed between north and south in 2005, but the parties have been slow in implementing the cease-fire and many obstacles remain.

The north-south conflict is separate from the conflict between the central government in Khartoum and rebels in the western Darfur province.

judythpiazza@newsblaze.com