KHARTOUM – Clashes between the southern army and a rebel militia group in south Sudan’s Upper Nile state have left more than 40 people dead, including seven soldiers, southern army spokesman Philip Aguer said on Monday. “There was fighting on Sunday between the SPLA and a former militia group under Ulony, a militia commander who had been in the service of Khartoum for a long time,” the spokesman for the Sudan People’s Liberation Army told AFP.
The militiamen attacked a group of SPLA soldiers who had gone to the market in Owach, a town west of Upper Nile’s state capital Malakal, killing one and wounding one, Aguer said. “After that incident, the SPLA attacked their camp at around 12:00 pm, and fighting took place in which 37 of Ulony’s men and seven SPLA soldiers were killed, including the one that died earlier,” he said, adding that another 28 soldiers were wounded.
