Sudanese army thwarts rebel attack

Khartoum: Sudan’s army said on Thursday it had repelled an attack by rebels in Southern Kordofan, a border state where an insurgency has raged for almost four years, the state-run SUNA news agency reported.

Fighting in Kologi, a town in the Nuba mountains north of the state capital, Kadugli, resulted in “big losses in fighters and equipment” for the rebels, army spokesman Al Sawarmi Khalid was cited as saying

There was no independent confirmation of the violence. Insurgents will comment on the clashes later on Friday, Mubarak Ardol, spokesman for the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North rebel group, said by e-mail.

Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir visited Kadugli on March 1 as part of his campaign for re-election next month, pledging to end rebellions in the nation this year. Fighting between government forces and the SPLM-N erupted in Southern Kordofan in mid-2011 and spread to Blue Nile state.

On Thursday, Sudan branded the International Criminal Court a “failure” over its decision to refer it to the UN Security Council for failing to arrest President Omar Al Bashir over alleged war crimes.

The ICC ruled Sudan had failed to arrest Al Bashir over alleged war crimes in the western region of Darfur and passed the case to the Security Council to take “the necessary measures they deem appropriate”.

“The decisions of the ICC are not in any way binding to the Sudanese government and raising Sudan’s case with the Security Council reflects the failure of the ICC,” Information Minister Ahmad Bilal Othman said.

“The ICC knows it doesn’t scare Sudan at all,” Othman told the Sudanese Media Centre, a website seen as close to the security apparatus.

Al Bashir, 71, is wanted over his role in the conflict in Darfur, where insurgents rose up in 2003.

More than 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict, the UN says, although Khartoum puts the toll at 10,000.

The ICC issued warrants against Al Bashir in 2009 and 2010 but he travels across the African continent despite a legal obligation by ICC member states to arrest him.

Sudan has not signed the ICC’s founding treaty but has been a member of the UN since 1956.

The Security Council referred the Darfur case to the ICC for investigation in a 2005 resolution and Sudan, as a UN member is obliged to cooperate, the tribunal judges said.

In December the ICC said it was shelving investigations into alleged war crimes in Darfur, and prosecutor Fatou Bensouda sharply criticised the Security Council for its inaction over the conflict.

Al Bashir is running for another term in presidential and legislative polls slated to take place in April, which he is widely expected to win.