Sudan: SPLA ex-combatants take up arms over Abeyi

CounterVortex

South Sudanese former SPLA rebel fighters engaged government forces May 14 in the disputed oil-rich Abyei region, leaving up to four dead and sending hundreds fleeing. Heavy exchanges of machine gun and mortar fire could be heard from a UN base just outside the town in the north-south border zone. Fighting reportedly spilled into the town’s marketplace. Abyei, often called the “Kashmir” of Sudan’s north-south conflict and coveted by both sides, is cited as a potential flashpoint to reignite civil war. (Reuters, May 14)

See our last posts on Sudan and the Sahel.

  1. McCain’s wife sells Sudan-related investments
    From Reuters Africa, May 14:

    Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s wife, Cindy, has sold more than $2 million in mutual funds with investments in companies that do business in Sudan, McCain’s campaign said on Wednesday.

    John McCain has been a strong advocate for imposing international financial sanctions on Sudan because of the 5-year-old Darfur conflict, in which U.N. officials estimate that as many as 300,000 people may have been killed.

    McCain’s campaign said Cindy McCain had been unaware that Hensley and Co., the beer distributorship that she chairs, had investments in a mutual fund whose holdings included companies that do business in Sudan.

    “When she was made aware, she sold it,” said McCain campaign communications director Jill Hazelbaker.

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