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Aid workers load tents for refugees from Blue Nile/AFP

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Fighting flares in Sudan’s Blue Nile

Aid workers load tents for refugees from Blue Nile/AFP

Aid workers load tents for refugees from Blue Nile/AFP

KHARTOUM, Aug 28 – Fighting between government and rebel forces has flared in Sudan’s Blue Nile state, both sides say.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), in a statement received late Tuesday, said its forces had seized two government military camps in Geissan district bordering Ethiopia.

The statement, dated August 24, said rebels also “destroyed” a government convoy.

Four rebels died in the operations but a larger number of government troops were killed, SPLM-N said.

Sudan’s army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad said the military had “liberated” a village in Geissan, killing a number of rebels.

He was quoted by the official SUNA news agency.

The SPLM-N has been fighting for about two years in Blue Nile and, in a more intensive campaign, in South Kordofan state.

More than one million people have been displaced or severely affected by war in the two states, the United Nations says.

The SPLM-N was allied with the SPLM, the now ruling party of South Sudan, during its 1983-2005 war with Khartoum that culminated in South Sudan’s independence in July 2011.

Khartoum accuses the South’s government in Juba of continuing to support the rebels.

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If those concerns are not addressed by September 6 Sudan has threatened to shut the pipelines carrying landlocked South Sudan’s oil for export.

Analysts say both governments have supported insurgents on their neighbour’s soil.

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