Sudan rebels claim new victory in Upper Nile

The Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) said on Wednesday it had captured the town of Mabaan in Upper Nile region of southern Sudan, bordering Blue Nile. Spokesman Justin Yak told Reuters the town was captured after a 12 hour battle with government troops. The SPLA had deployed a brigade of about 1,500 men to take the town in response to “provocation” by government soldiers who had been raiding villages and stealing livestock, said the spokesman. Mabaan is a small but strategically important town, on route to the key towns of Ulu and Renk, leading in turn to the oilfields north of the town of Malakal. The SPLA frontline around the Mabaan area has been relatively static since early 1998, when the first major gain was made - but is perceived as a potential threat to oil producing regions. It is also a political “fault line” between north and south where many communities in the region do not fall within the simple categorisation of northern-Moslem or southern-Christian, and are therefore vulnerable to accusations of treachery from both sides. Many civilians have fled areas in Upper Nile and Blue Nile where the SPLA has accused government-allied militia of carrying out a “scorched earth” policy, destroying houses, crops and causing general environmental damage. In June, the SPLA agreed to resume participation in peace talks led by the regional body Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which it initially boycotted in protest against the bombardment of civilian targets in the south. It agreed to participate when the bombings were halted. With new SPLA accusations of bombing in the western Equatoria towns of Yei and Kaja Kaji, the planned IGAD talks may be undermined.