Sudan’s president promised on Wednesday there would be no return to civil war in Africa’s biggest country in a speech that sought to calm tensions over a growing stand-off with the south. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir called on his political opponents to work with him ”for the homeland”.
Former southern rebels on Sunday accused Sudan’s president of ”threatening and calling for war” in speech he gave in honour of a government-allied militia charged with a string of atrocities. Pagan Amum, Secretary General of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, said he deplored the comments by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
Sudan’s president said on Saturday he would not budge ”an inch” on the contested borders of the oil-rich Abyei region. Khartoum and former southern rebels the Southern People’s Revolutionary Movement (SPLM) are divided over the demarcation of Abyei, the source of much of Sudan’s energy reserves.
