Militia clash with South Sudan Army in Malakal

JUBA, Sudan, Feb 24 (Reuters) - South Sudan's army and militiamen traded heavy gunfire on Tuesday in the south Sudan town of Malakal, eyewitnesses and southern army officials said.

The fighting was between the southern army and members of a southern militia headed by Gabriel Tang, who was backed by Khartoum during Sudan's long civil war between the north and south, a senior commander from the south's army said. "This (fighting) is because Tang arrived yesterday in Malakal.

The U.N. tried to persuade him to leave but he refused," James Hoth told Reuters. Hoth said the fighting had been heavy, but it was not yet known whether anyone had been killed or wounded. Fighting between south Sudan's army and elements in Tang's militia killed 150 people in Malakal in 2006 and was a major threat to a fragile north-south peace deal signed in 2005. A witness sheltering from gunfire said there had been two separate outbreaks of gunfire and explosions.

"There's been heavy shooting this morning from about 8 a.m. There have also been big explosions ... there are tanks on the streets," said the witness, who declined to be named. After the 2006 fighting the south's President Salva Kiir issued an arrest warrant for Tang and he was barred from Malakal, Hoth said. The southern army soldiers involved in the fighting are from a special joint unit of both northern and southern forces that control the south's towns and oil fields under the peace accord, Hoth said. The northern army contingent contains former members of Tang's militia, Hoth said, but it is unclear whether they are involved in Tuesday's fighting.

Militia fights South Sudan army

BBC 24 Feb

South Sudan's army and militiamen have exchanged heavy gunfire in the town of Malakal, according to local officials and eyewitnesses.

It reportedly involves the southern army and a militia led by Gabriel Tang, who was backed by Khartoum during Sudan's 21-year north-south civil war.

Fighting between South Sudan's army and elements in the Tang militia killed 150 people in Malakal in 2006.

A BBC correspondent says tensions between north and south remain high.

The BBC's Peter Martell in the South Sudan capital Juba adds that the former civil war adversaries clashed last year in flashpoint border areas.

The north-south conflict cost an estimated 1.5 million lives and ended in 2005 with the setting up of an autonomous secular government in the south.

"This [fighting] is because Tang arrived yesterday in Malakal. The UN tried to persuade him to leave but he refused," southern army commander James Hoth told Reuters news agency on Tuesday.

'Tanks'

He said southern army soldiers from a special joint unit of both northern and southern troops stationed in Malakal under the peace accord were involved in the fighting.

But it was not immediately clear if any northern forces had joined in the clashes.

An eyewitness told Reuters he had seen tanks on the streets of the town.

South Sudan Information Minister Gabriel Changson Cheng said the fire-fight had been on and off all day and there was no official confirmation of any deaths as yet.

The confrontation came as Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir made a rare visit to the south's capital.

The International Criminal Court will announce on 4 March whether it is to indict him for alleged war crimes committed in the separate conflict in the western region of Darfur - a move correspondents fear could worsen the fighting in Darfur and even drag South Sudan back to war.

*Sudan Radio Service 24 Feb

Fighting in Malakal Kills 6, Sixteen Injured

(Malakal) - Fighting broke out between SPLA and SAF members of a Joint Integrated Unit (JIU) in Malakal on Tuesday morning.

An eye-witness, speaking to Sudan Radio Service by phone from Malakal, said the tension started on Monday afternoon, when a SAF commander, Gabriel Gatwiech Chan, popularly known as "Tanginye" arrived at the airport.

The fighting started after SAF members of the Malakal JIU refused to return Tanginye to Khartoum.

The SPLA contingent in the Malakal JIU is alleged to have insisted that Tanginye should not be allowed to stay in Malakal. They accused him of being behind 2006 clashes in which over 300 people were killed.

Sudan Radio Service producer Koang Pal Chang spoke to an eye-witness who declined to be identified.

[Interview with an eyewitness]

Unconfirmed reports suggest that 6 people have been killed, including a 14 year old boy. 16 others have been injured.

Malakal Fighting Due to Presence of Tanginye Says Army Chief

(Khartoum) - The chairman of the Joint Technical Defense Board says the main cause of the fighting in Malakal was the arrival of general Tanginye in Malakal on Monday.

Speaking to Sudan Radio Service by phone from Khartoum, Brigadier Marshall Stephen said that General Tanginye was advised to return to Khartoum. The general refused on the grounds that he was visiting his family.

Brigadier Stephen describes the situation.

[Brigadier Stephen]: "What happened is that Tanginye went to Malakal yesterday, when he arrived, he was told to go back to Khartoum because he had caused problems there before, but he refused to go back. This morning, fighting started in the northern sector of the JIU deployment area. Now the SAF and their artillery are in the northern sector. The colonel who is in charge of SAF JIU is now in the southern sector with the SPLA JIU. The problem was Tanginye. At the moment we are traveling as a delegation to Malakal to see the situation on the ground and to see what is going on."

That was the chairman of the joint technical defense board, Brigadier Marshall Stephen, speaking to Sudan Radio Service from Khartoum on his way to Malakal.