Calm returns to Sudanese oil-rich flashpoint after dozens killed
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A Sudanese parliamentarian and tribal leader says calm has returned to an oil rich flashpoint region in central Sudan after four days of fierce clashes between southern troops and Arab tribesmen that left dozens dead.
Mohammed Salman Gur says that it was not until Tuesday morning that troops from the Southern People's Liberation Army began withdrawing from Kailak-Kharasana area in southern Kordofan province following an agreement that halted fighting with local Misseriah Arab tribesmen.
Gur said at least 28 tribesmen were killed along with an unspecified number of southerners. Claimed by north and south, the region is a potential flashpoint that could wreck the fragile peace between the ethnic African south and Sudan's Arab-dominated government in the capital Khartoum.