20110424
reuters

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - At least 55 fighters were killed when south Sudan's army clashed with a rebel militia, a state minister said on Sunday, the latest in a wave of violence across the territory ahead of its independence in July.

Scores of troops and civilians were injured in the clash, Upper Nile State Information Minister Peter Lam Both said.

The oil-producing south voted to separate from the north in a January referendum promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war in Sudan. Since the historic poll, the region has been beset by violence and insecurity.

The southern army (SPLA) is at war with at least seven rebel militia, and traditional tribal clashes have intensified with the onset of the rainy season, according to the United Nations, which says more than 800 people have been killed this year.

Analysts warn the south risks becoming a failed state and destabilising the region if it cannot control the crisis, with tens of thousands displaced by the various conflicts affecting nine of its ten states, according to the United Nations.

The SPLA clashed on Saturday with forces loyal to renegade army commander Gabriel Tang during what was meant to be the reintegration of his forces into south Sudan's army, Both said.

"We understand that on the side of (Tang's forces) 55 were killed including five of his generals," Both told Reuters, adding his information had come from the south Sudan army.

"We don't have reports of those killed from the SPLA and civilian sides but the (overall) death toll must be much higher," he said, adding the state capital Malakal had received 34 wounded SPLA soldiers and 43 civilian injuries.