Government says SPLA offensive “futile”

The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) claimed on Tuesday to have captured a government military garrison in the Nubah Mountains. SPLA spokesman Samson Kwaje said in a statement that the SPLA had, on 9 June, taken control of an army post at Kalandi in Deliny county, 106 miles from Al-Ubayyid. Kwaje claimed that SPLA forces had killed nine government soldiers and taken the garrison commander prisoner. The statement said the garrison had been a component of the government forces which had been “ravaging the Nubah Mountains since 1986”.

Spokesman for the Sudanese embassy in Khartoum Muhammad Dirdiery did not deny that the garrison had been taken, but told IRIN: “Whether or not they have captured a garrison is totally meaningless.” He said the continued offensive of the SPLA in the Nubah Mountains was in defiance of all international efforts to bring to peace Sudan. “It will prove to be futile,” he said. Dirdery added that claims made by the SPLA on 15 June to have repulsed a major government offensive in the Nubah Mountains were “complete nonsense”.