20100425
Press Tv

At least 58 people have been killed and 85 others wounded in a battle between the South Sudan army and Arab nomads of west Darfur.

The fight took place along the sensitive border between Darfur and South Sudan on Friday, said Mohammed Issa Aliou, one of the heads of the Rezeigat tribe, which is based mainly in Darfur.

"There are many members of the Rezeigat tribe who are heading to the (site of the clashes) in order to help out. There are also reinforcements from the south Sudan army coming from three cities — Raja, Aweil and Wau," Aliou said.

He said that the Arab nomads were seeking water and new land for their cattle close to the border with the southern state of Western Bahr al-Ghazal.

On Saturday, the South Sudan army claimed that the attackers were not Rezeigat tribesmen but were the northern-based central government army.

"A company of 120 [Sudan People's Liberation Army] soldiers was attacked on Friday night by armed men wearing uniforms of the northern army that were heavily equipped," said Major General Kuol Deim Kuol of the former southern rebel, AFP reported.

Autonomous South Sudan is in recovery from a civil war, mainly over resources, with the north, in which around 2 million people were killed.

According to the United Nations, over 400 people have been killed across the south in revenge attacks and cattle raids in 2010.

Friday's fighting came as the people of Sudan were waiting for the results of the first multiparty elections in more than two decades on April 15.