Medical team flee troop movements in Bentiu area

Troop movements in the oil exploration region of southern Sudan on Saturday forced the inhabitants of the village of Nimne, western Upper Nile (Wahdah State), including a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) medical team, to flee the village and seek safety in the surrounding area. The residents of Nimne, estimated as numbering between 1,000 and 1,500, were advised to leave by representatives of the Relief Association of South Sudan (RASS), the humanitarian wing of the rebel Sudan People's Defence Force (SPDF), after a "fair number" of troops were reported to be moving towards the village, MSF told IRIN on Wednesday. "There are all kinds of troops in the area," MSF said. "There is increasing concern about this area and the increase in fighting." A number of villagers and the MSF team, comprising one medical doctor and a laboratory technician, left Nimne, situated some 25 km east of Bentiu, capital of Wahdah (Unity) State, at around 10 p.m. on Saturday evening, and headed northeast, stopping at Bil, a small village nearby, MSF said. Most of the Nimne population has dispersed throughout the surrounding area, some moving towards Bil and others seeking safety in the surrounding bush. Some Nimne residents were believed to have returned to the village the following day, MSF said. At the time of the evacuation, MSF in Nimne ran a basic health-care unit, carrying out some 1,400 consultations per month and a treatment site for kala-azar - a tropical infectious disease of the liver and spleen characterised by fever and weight loss - caring for 110 patients. Two suspected meningitis cases had been reported by the medical team at Nimne, MSF said. Nimne was ransacked in July 2000 by troops of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), during a period when SPLA and SPDF forces in the area were in conflict, according to humanitarian sources. The SPDF leader, Riek Machar, and the head of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), John Garang, on 7 January announced a merger deal, designed to unite the two groups both politically and militarily. Although it was unclear whether the troops moving close to Nimne were loyal to the government or to rebel forces, reports indicated that the number of troops involved in the move could have been as great as 2,000. It was also thought that they eventually passed by Nimne and headed towards Bentiu, the main town in the area and a centre for oil production, MSF reported. Although the work of the MSF team at Nimne had been stable, "the proximity to Bentiu has always made us a bit nervous," MSF said. The oil-rich areas of western Upper Nile have seen fighting at various times between groups loyal to Khartoum, to the SPLM/A, and to the SPDF. Although recent reports had suggested an escalation in fighting in the area, it was unclear which groups were involved in it, humanitarian sources said. Muhammad Ahmad Dirdiery, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, told IRIN on 23 January that western Upper Nile was "almost 100 percent" under government control with only a "few pockets here and there" still occupied by rebel forces. "Skirmishes around these places are normal, and the government is always carrying out routine movements to protect oil companies operating in the region," he said.