Clashes break out in Sudan's Abyei region

By David Lewis

ABYEI, Sudan (Reuters) - South Sudanese former rebels fought northern government forces on Wednesday in the disputed oil-rich Abyei region, killing up to four people and sending hundreds fleeing, south Sudanese and U.N. officials said.

Fighting began near the town of Abyei on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday heavy exchanges of machine gun and mortar fire could be heard from a U.N. base just outside the town in the north-south border zone, witnesses said.

They said hundreds of civilians fled the fighting between northern forces and the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army. A helicopter evacuated some aid workers and non-essential U.N. staff from the area.

"Some of the SPLA soldiers and the Sudanese Armed Forces were fighting in the market," said Moussa Malei, deputy administrator of Abyei, adding that two people were killed on Tuesday.

Analysts say that Abyei, often called the "Kashmir" of Sudan's north-south conflict and coveted by both sides, could be the flash point to reignite civil war if its status is not resolved amicably and quickly.

Under a 2005 agreement that ended more than 20 years of north-south civil war, Abyei town is to be guarded by special joint units of northern and southern soldiers.

A U.N. official said fighting in Abyei had worsened on Wednesday after a Sudanese government soldier was killed. "That seemed to cause the escalation," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A diplomatic source said the fighting had stemmed from an incident on Tuesday when SPLA forces detained a northern government soldier and some civilians, leading to an argument in which a northern soldier was shot.