Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir rejected for Malawi's Banda

Malawi's new President Joyce Banda has said she does not want Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, accused of war crimes, to attend a summit in July.

She says she fears the "economic implications" if Mr Bashir attends the African Union meeting in Malawi.

Her predecessor, Bingu wa Mutharika, who died last month, last year defied calls to apprehend Mr Bashir.

Despite UN sanctions deadline, South Sudan keep 'bombing'

The two Sudans have swapped accusations of continuing to fight as a UN deadline has passed for them to cease hostilities or face sanctions.

South Sudan says Khartoum is continuing to bomb its territory - charges it denies.

Sudan says that until the South withdraws from territory it has occupied it has not "stopped hostilities".

Sudan vows to end fighting with South Sudan

Sudan has promised to cease hostilities with South Sudan and comply with a UN Security Council resolution.

However the foreign ministry also said that Khartoum reserved the right to respond to "aggression" from the South.

The statement came hours after Juba alleged fresh bombing by the Khartoum government's forces.

A UN resolution on Wednesday backed an African Union plan demanding both sides cease hostilities, amid fears of an all-out war between the neighbours.

UN passes resolution threatening sanctions on Sudans

The UN Security Council has threatened to impose sanctions on Sudan and South Sudan if the two nations fail to halt the recent violence.

The unanimously backed resolution calls on Khartoum and Juba to resume negotiations on disputed issues within two weeks.
Fighting in recent weeks has raised fears of a return to all-out war.
South Sudan became independent last year, but disputes with the north over territorial issues remained unresolved.

Sudan 'declares emergency' on border with South Sudan

Sudan has reportedly declared a state of emergency along its border with South Sudan after weeks of clashes.

The decree will apply in the border districts of the South Kordofan, White Nile and Sennar states, according to the state-run Suna news agency.
Meanwhile, South Sudan has said it is willing to pull its police forces out of the disputed Abyei border region.
Sudanese local authorities have ordered a group of 12,000 ethnic South Sudanese people to leave Sudan within a week.

Ugandan army says Sudan is backing Joseph Kony's LRA

The Ugandan army says the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony is being supported and supplied by the Sudanese government.

The LRA is accused of rape, mutilation, murder and the recruitment of child soldiers.
A Ugandan Defence Force colonel told the BBC they captured a member of the LRA who was wearing a Sudanese uniform, and carried its weapons and ammunition.
The US has sent special forces to help in the hunt for Mr Kony.

South Sudan's Salva Kiir says Sudan has declared war

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir says Sudan has "declared war" on his country, following weeks of fighting along their common border.

Mr Kiir was speaking in China, which is a major buyer of oil from both countries, but has long been an ally of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.

Meanwhile, Sudanese warplanes conducted multiple bombing raids against Southern border regions in the early morning.

The raids followed a fatal bombing near the border town of Bentiu on Monday.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack, in which a market was bombed, killing at least one person and injuring many others.

The latest attacks hit the towns of Panakwatch and Lalop, and the Teshwin border post, the AFP news agency reported.

South Sudan became independent last year, following decades of conflict.

There have been tense relations since then, primarily over the division of oil reserves and the full definition of borders.

'Strategic partner'

Mr Kiir was speaking as he met Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in Beijing, after arriving there on Monday for a five-day visit.

Mr Kiir said his visit came "at a very critical moment for the Republic of South Sudan because our neighbour in Khartoum has declared war on the Republic of South Sudan".

He called China one of his country's "economic and strategic partners".

Chinese state television quoted Mr Hu as urging calm and restraint on both Sudans.

Sudan has made no formal declaration of war, but analysts say Mr Kiir is clearly escalating the war of words.

Beijing has urged an end to the recent hostilities, during which Southern forces occupied Sudan's most important oil field, in the Heglig area, saying it belonged to the South.

South Sudan says its forces withdrew from Heglig after two weeks, but Sudan says it expelled them, killing 1,000 soldiers.

Mr Bashir says he will not negotiate with the South and has vowed to continue military action until all Southern troops and their allies are out of Sudan.

The BBC's James Copnall, recently in Bentiu, says that while the conflict has not spread beyond a limited geographical area, talk of a slide towards war is not far from the truth.

On Monday, Mr Ban called on Mr Bashir and Mr Kiir "to stop the slide toward further confrontation and... to return to dialogue as a matter of urgency".

US President Barack Obama has said both countries "must have the courage" to return to the negotiating table and resolve their differences peacefully.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said on Tuesday that oil was "the economic lifeline for both countries".

He added: "To maintain the stability and sustainability of the oil cooperation is consistent with the fundamental interests of both countries. It is also consistent with the interests of Chinese enterprises and their partners.

"We hope the oil negotiation between Sudan and South Sudan will make progress and [the two countries] will find a solution that both of them and other sides involved can accept."

In January, South Sudan shut down oil production, which provides 98% of its revenue, after Khartoum impounded South Sudanese oil shipments amid a dispute over transit fees.

South Sudan took most of the former united Sudan's oil reserves when it became independent but relies on pipelines to seaports in Sudan to export it.

South Sudan voted overwhelmingly in favour of secession in a January 2011 referendum, leading to independence six months later.

 

Sudan president seeks to 'liberate' South Sudan

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir has said his main goal is now to "liberate" the people of South Sudan from its rulers following recent border clashes.

The former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) has ruled South Sudan since it seceded from Sudan in July 2011.
President Bashir described the SPLM as "insects" that needed to be eliminated.
Fighting between the two countries has now spread to another area, further adding to fears of all-out war.
South Sudan seized the Heglig oil field - generally recognised as Sudanese territory - eight days ago. On Tuesday fighting broke out north of Aweil in South Sudan, about 100 miles (160km) west of Heglig.

The South Sudanese military said 22 soldiers had been killed, with casualties on both sides.

'Disease' Mr Bashir told a rally at his party's headquarters that the SPLM needed to be removed.
"We say that it has turned into a disease, a disease for us and for the South Sudanese citizens. The main goal should be liberation from these insects and to get rid of them once and for all, God willing."
The reference to insects is an apparent play on the SPLM's Arabic name.
He told the crowd that his message to the SPLM was: "Either we end up in Juba and take everything, or you end up in Khartoum and take everything."
The BBC's James Copnall in Khartoum says the comments sounded like a declaration of war.
President Bashir also predicted that "within a few hours you are going to listen to good news from your brothers in Heglig".
Sudan army officials made similar comments when they started a counter-attack on Friday.
After President Bashir made his comments a South Sudan minister called for negotiations. "We can only resolve this through talks with the African Union," Minister of Information, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, told Agence France-Presse.
On Tuesday international envoys to Sudan told the United Nations Security Council that both sides were "locked in the logic of war".

The current spate of fighting is the worst since South Sudan's independence last year, which followed two decades of civil war between Mr Bashir's government and the SPLM.

A Sudanese foreign ministry official said Sudan would end the occupation of Heglig "by hook or crook".
Our correspondent says civilians in both Sudan and South Sudan are volunteering to join paramilitary forces.
But he says others are involved in protest movements, saying they do not want this war against people who were recently their fellow citizens. They feel bad leadership has led them to the verge of all-out war.
A non-Sudanese source close to the border talks told the BBC that during years of discussions before its independence, South Sudan never claimed Heglig as part of its territory.
In a separate development, the world's newest country became a member of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday.

MPs in Khartoum brand South Sudan 'enemy' state

Sudanese MPs have voted unanimously to brand South Sudan "an enemy".

"The government of South Sudan is an enemy and all Sudanese state agencies have to treat her accordingly," the resolution said.
A Khartoum information ministry official told the BBC the move was linked to South Sudan's seizure last week of the Heglig oil field.
The South had accused Sudan of launching attacks on its territory from the frontier oil field.
South Sudan seceded in July last year following a civil war which ended in 2005.
But a number of major disputes remain, including over oil and the official demarcation of the international border, and there have been a number of clashes since.
UN camp bombed The BBC's James Copnall in Khartoum says the full ramifications of the parliamentary vote are not clear, but it is evident that both countries are close to a full war.
The speaker of parliament, Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir, called for Sudan to overthrow the South Sudanese government, the AFP news agency reports.
Dr Khalid Al Mubarak, London's Sudan embassy spokesperson, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that South Sudan has made itself an enemy by crossing the border and occupying Sudan's land.
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Khartoum forces 'bomb South Sudan town'

South Sudan has accused Sudan of launching further bombing raids on its territory and against its forces.

The governor of Unity state says several people were killed in its capital Bentiu when a plane dropped bombs on a market.

South Sudan also says its troops came under air attack in the oil-producing Heglig region which they have seized.

Sudan's ambassador to the UK, Abdullahi Al Azreg, said Sudan did not target civilians.

He insisted Khartoum had bombed military camps used by northern rebels supported by South Sudan.

"These people are occupying our land. Everybody is witnessing what they are doing. They have killed the civilians, they are doing very bad things. We will target the rebels as long as they are occupying our land," he told the BBC.

South Sudan said earlier on Saturday that it had repulsed an offensive on its positions near Heglig.

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UN demands immediate end to Sudan oilfields fighting

The UN Security Council has called for an immediate and unconditional end to fighting on Sudan's southern border.

It expressed its "deep and growing alarm" over the "escalating conflict", and said the situation threatened to return the countries to full-scale war.

Since Tuesday, South Sudanese forces have occupied the Heglig oilfield, on its disputed border with Sudan.

It said the Sudanese air force must stop bombing, while South Sudan withdraw from the Heglig oilfields.

The council also called on all forces to pull back 10 kilometres (six miles) from their shared border, and for the countries to hold an immediate presidential summit, as had been planned previously.

Sudan's ambassador at the UN, Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, welcomed the statement.

He said if Southern troops don't comply than Khartoum will "chase them out" and "hit deep inside South Sudan".

He dismissed the Council's demand that Sudan also end aerial bombardments, saying reports of such attacks were fiction.

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Fears grow of widening Sudan war

A second day of fighting between Sudan and South Sudan in their disputed border regions has prompted international concern that the conflict might develop into outright war.

The African Union says it is deeply alarmed by the clashes over oilfields, and called on both sides to exercise the utmost restraint.

Sudan has pulled out of negotiations with South Sudan.

The fighting is the worst since South Sudan seceded in July last year.

South Sudan has seized the town of Heglig, which is internationally recognised as Sudanese territory, though South Sudan disputes this.

Sudan has complained to the United Nations and the AU about South Sudan's "aggression". The parliament in Khartoum called for a "mobilisation and alert" of the people.

After talking to President Salva Kiir of South Sudan, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he had suggested an immediate summit between the two countries to build confidence and reaffirm that dialogue was the only solution.

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Sudan says South Sudan controls largest oil field

Sudan says its largest oil field is now controlled by South Sudan's army.

A Sudanese military spokesman told the BBC its forces had been defeated outside Heglig, and retreated north.

South Sudan said its forces had advanced to Heglig, but stopped short of saying its forces actually controlled the oil fields.

Clashes between the two sides started two weeks ago, and are among the worst since South Sudan gained independence last July after a long civil war.

South Sudan ended up with most of the oil fields, although it has to export the oil using pipelines through ports in Khartoum's territory.

Both sides blame the other for starting the latest fighting along the undemarcated and disputed frontier in the oil-producing Heglig area.

South Sudan's military spokesman, Philip Aguer, told the BBC the army was responding to air and ground attacks by the Sudanese armed forces.

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