By Aaron Maasho and Khalid Abdelaziz
ADDIS ABABA/KHARTOUM (Reuters) – South Sudan accused Sudan of launching air strikes in the border region on Wednesday, hours after the postponement of talks aimed at defusing the worst clashes since the South seceded.
The Sudanese army denied any attack.
The neighbours have fought repeatedly in the past few days along the poorly marked 1,800-km (1,200-mile) border, the worst direct confrontation since the South split away in July under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war.
Western nations fear the clashes could reignite a full-blown war between the mainly Muslim north and the Christian and animist South, with rival claims on oil resources a key part of the conflict.
South Sudan’s top negotiator, Pagan Amum, said Sudanese MiG-29 jets bombed the garrison town of Panakuach in Unity state after talks sponsored by the African Union had been postponed with no deal signed and no indication of progress.
“One (jet) has been shot down in Panakuach. This is very clear, it’s war-mongering that made them not to sign,” he said.
Sudanese army spokesman Sawarmi Khalid Saad denied there had been an air strike or that a plane had been lost.
“Today it was quiet,” he said.
The charges came as talks between the two countries were postponed after Khartoum asked for more time to consider an African Union proposal to ease tensions.
The proposal called for an immediate cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of armed forces from each other’s territories and preparations for a meeting of the two presidents.
Pagan told Reuters his country had accepted the proposal.
But Sudanese Defence Minister Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein told reporters on his return home that Khartoum needed more time to discuss the proposal.
He said Juba needed to stop supporting rebels in Sudan’s border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile. Juba denies any support for rebels of the SPLM-North, which has been fighting the Sudanese army in the two states since last year.
Sudan analysts see little chance of any breakthrough in the talks after Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir called off an April 3 summit with his southern counterpart Salva Kiir following the violence.
Apart from marking their border, the two sides are also at odds over oil, the lifeline of both economies.
Juba inherited three quarters of Sudan’s output but failed to agree how much it should pay to export crude through Sudan.
In January, Sudan said it was taking southern oil in lieu of what it called unpaid transit fees. In response, Juba turned off the oil taps even though crude accounts for 98 percent of South Sudan’s state revenues.