SOUTH SUDAN: Sudanese fighter jets bomb the twin South Sudanese towns of Bentiu and Rubkona, killing three people in an operation that raises the heat on an already tense border

Record ID: 357490

  • Title: SOUTH SUDAN: Sudanese fighter jets bomb the twin South Sudanese towns of Bentiu and Rubkona, killing three people in an operation that raises the heat on an already tense border
  • Date: 24th April 2012
  • Summary: BENTIU AND RUBKONA, SOUTH SUDAN (APRIL 23, 2012) (REUTERS) (WARNING - GRAPHIC IMAGE) CHARRED BODY OF BURNT BOY COVERED WITH A SHEET
  • Embargoed: 9th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Sudan, South Sudan
  • Country: South Sudan
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAC02XFMEPFVDJBVYFMUITLKCXE
  • Story Text: Sudanese fighter jets bombed a market and a bridge on Monday (April 23) in the twin South Sudanese towns of Bentiu and Rubkona, killing at least one boy and injuring some ten others, three days after South Sudan pulled out of a disputed oil field.
    As people ran for cover, two bombs landed near a key bridge linking the two towns. The latest aerial bombardments by the Sudanese Armed Forces comes as relations between Sudan and South Sudan plummet to an all-time low and threaten to drag them into all-out war.
    At the market in Rubkona, shops were set ablaze by another bomb, and at least one boy was killed.
    A South Sudanese soldier said three people had died in the bombings.
    "The airplane is coming today and has been bombing Rubkona County, and it has killed three people and it burnt four shops and now we are suffering a lot for the kid," said an unidentified South Sudanese soldier who witness the bombing.
    South Sudan gained independence in July last year from Sudan but relations have steadily deteriorated, with the South shutting down all it 350,000 barrel oil production in January and since then the two countries' armies have skirmished along their ill-defined border and brought the two foes to the brink of all-out war.
    "It was an air raid that was carried out by the Sudanese airforce. Two MiG 29 fighters came and dropped four bombs," said Mac Paul, South Sudan's deputy director of military intelligence.
    On Friday South Sudan's army withdrew from Heglig, a key oil town that it captured from Sudan two weeks ago following widespread international condemnation, a decision unpopular locally.
    "The decision that was taken by the government and the council of ministers for the SPLA to withdraw from Heglig, we withdrew but there has been continuous provocations from the Sudanese army and its militia, both popular defence and southern militias towards our borders," Paul added.
    The spectre of war now seems closer than ever and for the people of Bentiu, peace can not come too soon.
    The countries are still at loggerheads over the demarcation of their shared border and other disputes have halted nearly all the oil production that underpins both economies.
    Recent tensions have been fuelled by a dispute over how much the landlocked South should pay to export oil via Sudan.
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