SPLM-N claims killing Sudan’s platoons, militias in Blue Nile

A rebel movement in Blue Nile state reported killing a large number of military forces and pro-government militia members during a battle at Kilgo that lasted from Wednesday until Thursday. Two tanks were destroyed and many weapons and ammunition were seized.

The spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) told Radio Dabanga that their forces and a detachment of about 5,000 Sudanese military and militia troops engaged when the latter attempted to enter Mount Kilgo, located between Bau and Ed Damazin towns.

The rebels killed “200” of them, spokesman Arnu Ngutulu Lodi said. He claimed only two rebel fighters were killed on the battlefield, and that twelve sustained injuries.

Death sentence

Lodi further described the recent upholding of the death sentences and jail terms that were ruled on 63 SPLM-N leaders and members by the Sudanese Supreme Court as “not legal”. “Judges at the courts of Sudan have become politicised under the authority that orders the judicial system.”

He demanded that the prisoners are treated as prisoners of war, and threatened that in the events the death sentences are implemented, “there will be consequences”.

Seventeen rebel leaders, including Malik Agar, chairman of the movement and former elected governor of Blue Nile state, and Yasir Arman, SPLM-N Secretary-General, were sentenced to death in absentia by the Sinja court in January this year. 46 SPLM-N members were sentenced to life imprisonment. The National Supreme Court in Khartoum upheld the court's decisions last week.