The United Nations says north Sudan has launched new air strikes on the border it shares with south Sudan and says the continued strikes are causing “huge suffering” to the civilian population.
A U.N. spokesman says jet fighters dropped 11 bombs Tuesday morning in Sudan's Southern Kordofan state. He said the bombs targeted an airfield just 150 meters from a building used by the U.N. peacekeeping mission.
Northern Sudanese troops have been fighting southern-aligned militia for more than a week in Southern Kordofan state.
The north's army last week seized control of the neighboring Abyei region, which also lies on the north-south border.
In another development Tuesday, negotiators for north and south Sudan continued to meet to finalize a reported deal on the disputed Abyei region.
VOA correspondent Peter Heinlein says the presidents of north and south Sudan have left the talks in Ethiopia's capital, but that meetings with lower-level officials continue.
On Monday, African Union mediators said the sides had agreed in principle to demilitarize Abyei and to allow Ethiopian peacekeepers into the area.
Southern official Arop Deng told reporters Tuesday that the sides are now exclusively focused on security issues in Abyei.
Also Tuesday, the United States warned Sudan that it will not move ahead on normalizing relations with Khartoum if the north pursues a military solution to the disputes in Abyei and Southern Kordofan.
U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner Tuesday deplored what he said was a “rapid and significant” deterioration of security conditions in Southern Kordofan. He said if Sudan chooses to escalate the situation further, it will face deeper international isolation.
North and south Sudan fought a 21-year civil war that ended with a 2005 peace deal. The south voted overwhelmingly to split from the north in a January referendum.
Abyei was scheduled to hold a separate referendum on whether to join the north or south, but the poll failed to happen because the sides could not agree on who was eligible to vote.
