"Offensive" against Sudan denied

The Ugandan government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on Thursday denied accusations by Khartoum that they were planning an offensive, along with "allies", against Sudan. "These are the usual lies about Uganda," Uganda's Presidential Press Secretary Hope Kivengere told IRIN. The SPLM termed the accusations a "big propaganda network" and "pure lies". "Whenever Khartoum is threatened it creates such rumours to attract the attention of the Arab world to get support," SPLM spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN. "Tanzania has never come that close to us, Burundi has its own internal problems, while Uganda also has its troops in the DRC, besides the rebel insurgencies. We completely deny this allegation." The Sudanese government, for its part, maintained that from its own observations "it is true that Uganda, SPLA and their allies are massing at the border". "Now that Uganda is not fighting in the DRC, they have some soldiers to spare," Sudanese embassy official in Nairobi, Al Mansour Bolad, told IRIN. The 'Indian Ocean Newsletter' recently reported that various SPLA bases were being led by Ugandan, Rwandan and Burundian military commanders "who are closing in on Sudan with the aim of attacking it from the south". The official SUNA news agency also mentioned Tanzania as another ally included in the alleged plan. On Wednesday, Sudanese army commander Muhammad Uthman Yasin reaffirmed his country's readiness to "repulse any external attack that targets the gains of the nation".