Sudan rebels hold third of country, fierce combat
Sudan, Military, 7/24/1997

Sudanese rebel forces who have been fighting the government for 15 years in the south claim to control around one third of the country following an offensive launched in January.

After more than a week of intense fighting, the main rebel force of John Garang, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), says it is about to mount a final assault on Juba, a key government town, and that it is gaining elsewhere.

"We're going to launch intensive attacks on three fronts, in the South, the East and the Nouba mountains" in the center of the country, SPLA spokesman Yasser Arman said in Asmara, capital of neighboring Eritrea.

Garang, whose soldiers are battling government forces and splinter groups of former SPLA fighters, said earlier this week the war "in the South is virtually over."

However, in a propaganda war which is as intense as the fighting on the ground, the government continues to insist that it is still in control of the situation.

"The military situation is satisfactory and is under the full control of the armed forces," the army spokesman, Gen. Mohammed al Sanousi Ahmed, said in a statement carried by Al Rai Al Akher newspaper.

What is clear is the ferocity of combat in the Southeast, with all sides claiming victory. The SPLA recently said it had seized the town of Aoyd. Then the government's former rebel allies, who signed a peace treaty with Khartoum in April, claimed they had retaken Warab, the capital of the region of the same name, a claim denied by Garang. "There wasn't even an attack," the rebel leader said.

However, Garang's claim that his forces are close to Juba is quietly acknowledged by the Khartoum-allied South Sudan Defense Force (SSDF).

A source in the Sudanese capital close to the SSDF said that SPLA troops were moving toward Juba, the most important town in the south. Taking Juba would be a significant victory for Garang's forces and would enable the rebel leader to set up an alternative capital for his mainly Christian and animist followers, who took up arms in 1993 against domination by the Arab-north.

In the east along the border with Ethiopia, which has seen bitter clashes in recent months, the situation remains calm, both sides say.

However, the SPLA rebels are not far from several key towns in the East and a spokesman for the government military said that while the current calm "might be the prelude to a storm ,we're ready to confront any move by the enemy."

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