SPLM/A claims “firm control” of Raga

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on Tuesday claimed that SPLA forces under Commander Pieng Deng Kuol had established firm control of the strategic garrison town of Raga, western Bahr al-Ghazal. Most of the 800 government soldiers who had been defending the town were killed, wounded or taken as prisoners of war, SPLM/A spokesman Samson Kwaje stated in a press release in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Remnants of the army garrison had fled towards Boro on the border with Darfur, while local militia formerly backing the government had joined the SPLA in big numbers, he said. Raga was taken by the SPLA at 10.30 am on Saturday morning as President Umar Hasan al-Bashir was on his way to Nairobi for regional peace talks on Sudan, at which little was achieved, under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Kwaje stated in his press release. The rebel movement appealed to residents of Raga to return to the town, and warned the government against escalating the war.

The reported SPLA seizure of Raga had not been independently confirmed but, if it was the case, there could be thousands of people displaced as a result of this latest fighting and what appeared to be a mounting SPLA offensive, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Tuesday.