PRESS DIGEST
Sudan reports fighting on border with Ethiopia
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
February 8, 1998
Khartoum – The Jebel Aldud district on the border with Ethiopia has been under artillery attack launched from across the border in Ethiopia since the morning of Feb. 7, Sudan’s official daily newspaper al-Anbaa reported on Feb. 8. The paper said the fighting was continuing up to the evening of Feb. 7 when it went to press.
Another daily, Alwan, described the attacking force as a combination of traitors and mercenaries, the name by which the Sudanese government calls the force raised by the Sudanese opposition in exile.
The paper quoted the spokesman of the eastern state of Gadarif, Mohamed Ahmed al-Hadi, as saying that “the war” was raging on. The spokesman urged every able-bodied person in Gadarif to “get his gun and hurry to the frontline.” He also called for blood donation to help the injured soldiers but he did not disclose the number of casualties.
According to Alwan, the governor of Gadarif state, Ibrahim Obeid-Alla, has declared a general mobilization of the army, the police and the entire population of the state to confront the attack. He said the enemy was planning to attack the whole of the eastern border.
Elsewhere in the east, Alwan reported, security personnel foiled an attempt by opposition guerrillas to cut off Port Sudan from the rest of the country by destroying the highway linking the Red Sea port to the Sudanese capital.
The Sudanese papers indicated that the country is in a state of war fever as war reports, especially the build-ups of forces on the borders with neighboring countries in the east and the south of the country, have been on the front pages for one week now.
The rebels of the Nubia Mountain led by Yousuf Kuwa in central Sudan are also reported by al-Anbaa to be planning attacks on government positions.
The Sudanese government has accused the United States of encouraging the Sudanese rebels and neighbors to attack it because of its decision to reject “American hegemony” by pursuing independent Islamic path.
The southern based rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and members of banned northern Sudanese political parties have entered into an alliance whose intention is to militarily overthrow the government of General Omar al-Beshir whom they accuse of dictatorship and creating enmity with neighbors.
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