Accusations renewed between the two Sudans

Al-Bashir & Kiir / Photo credit: Mepanorama.com

As usual, every time the two states of Sudan come close to an important achievement, they start trading accusations to lay it all to waste.

In the latest exchange of accusations, South Sudan openly charged the government of Sudan with responsibility for the killing of the supreme Dinka chief in Abyei; pre-empting the outcome of an investigation it had demanded.

A visibly irate Salva Kiir on Thursday said he will hold his Sudanese counterpart, Omer Al-Bashir, responsible for Kuol's death, if he fails to arrest and try perpetrators in an independent and competent court of law.

"It is the government of Sudan which killed the chief. It is not the Misseriya we know - the ones that move with their cattle south of Abyei every year looking for water and pasture lands", Kiir said.

"I hold the government of Sudan, especially president Bashir himself responsible if he fails to produce criminals and ensure that they are tried by the independent and competent court of law" he added.

Kiir wondered why the Misseriya chose to attack the chief at this particular time, when they had ample opportunity to do so in the past!

For its part, Sudan accused South Sudan of supporting rebels who launched a major assault two weeks ago, warning that this could derail recent oil and security agreements between the African neighbors, state media said on Saturday.

Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) said South Sudan had helped rebels in their attack on the central Sudan city of Um Rawaba two weeks prior.

“Support for the (rebel) forces ... included fuel supplies and the opening of military hospitals in the South to receive wounded Sudanese rebels," said NISS in a statement it issued on Saturday.

In addition, the NISS said it confirmed that Juba had supported rebels against Khartoum, on several occasions since the signing of the cooperation agreement to resume oil flow.

South Sudan had also issued emergency travel documents for wounded rebels to receive medical treatment in African countries and hosted some of their leaders in the capital Juba, the NISS said, adding that it urges the South Sudan government to withhold support to rebels who threaten the cooperation agreement.

Such escalated accusations threaten to torpedo recently normalized relations; a prospect that can only be described as a double suicide.

The chances of success will remain negligible, if not completely non-existent, as long as political will is lacking on both sides whose daily actions continue to add fuel to the fire.