Fighting in Bahr el Ghazal

The Sudanese government has sent troop reinforcements by train to Bahr el Ghazal State in southern Sudan in a bid to rescue forces from the Aweil and Wau garrisons from rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), a Sudanese opposition radio broadcast reported. The ‘Voice of Sudan, Voice of the National Democratic Alliance’ in a report monitored by the BBC said that in the ensuring battle on 23 August, rebels forces had destroyed the strategic Bahr al-Arab bridge.

“The government forces were surrounded between Bahr al-Arab and Lol River, and their two trains could not return to Bahr al-Arab or advance towards Lol River. The leadership of the movement calls on the government forces and the local militias, who hail from the Ruzayqat tribes, to keep away from the manoeuvres of the military regime, and to work towards coexistence instead of falling in the traps of the regime which is trying to sow seeds of difference through the divide-and-rule policy,” it said.