Rid Northern Kordofan of Rebels, Governor Tells SAF Troops

Sidra
July 25, 2013 (Sudan Radio Service)

The governor of Northern Kordofan, Ahmed Haroun, has urged the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) to defeat the Sudan Revolutionary Front and chase the rebels away from Northern Kordofan.

 Haroun made the comments on Sudan Television which on Wednesday broadcast footage of the governor addressing soldiers in a location that the state broadcaster said was Sidra, which rebels claim they captured yesterday.

 "What we have to do is to retaliate and teach them a lesson," Haroun was quoted telling the troops.

 He urged government soldiers not to cede even an inch of territory to the rebels.

 However, the SRF says it still controls the Sidra area. Jibril Adam Bilal, a spokesman for the Justice and Equality Movement (Jibril Ibrahim faction), said Haroun was not in Sidra.

 "I can say the SRF forces still have control over Sidra and the entire Jebel Dair area and all government militias are in Rahad and Abu Karshola," he said in a phone interview from London, stressing to SRS that Haroun made the speech outside the town of Rahad.

 Bilal said the situation in Sidra is calm and there is no fighting in the area.

 JEM troops, operating under the SRF banner, claim they captured Sidra on Tuesday, where the rebels claim they killed 27 government soldiers and captured eight vehicles and an assortment of military equipment.

 But the Sudan Armed Forces issued a statement on Tuesday denying the rebel claim. Spokesman Al-Sawarmi Khalid Saad said SAF killed five SRF soldiers in the fighting.

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