SUDAN - Dozens killed in violent fighting Juba

Juba (AP):

Fighting in a tense area of Southern Sudan last weekend killed dozens of people only weeks after some 240 people died in violence in the same area, two officials said yesterday.

The clashes could destabilise what is soon to be the world's newest country.

Rebel leader George Athor said his forces fought with the southern military on Sunday in Southern Sudan's Jonglei state. The spokesman for the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army, Col Philip Aguer, confirmed that the fighting took place.

The death tolls provided by the two men varied widely. Athor said 110 people died in the fighting, mostly southern soldiers, but also 12 civilians. Aguer said around 40 were killed. He did not specify if they were soldiers or civilians, but he called Athor's toll an exaggeration.

After that violence, government leaders in Southern Sudan accused Athor, a former deputy chief of staff in the southern army, of committing a "massacre". Athor said the army had attacked his forces first as they were gathering in "assembly points" outlined in a January 5 cease-fire agreement between his forces and the army.

The cease-fire was signed on the eve of the south's January 9-15 independence referendum, which passed overwhelmingly and will see Southern Sudan become the world's newest nation in July.