Kiir says Khartoum has ‘declared war’

persisted despite international calls for restraint.
The South Sudanese leader is in Beijing on an official visit aimed at shoring up ties with China. 
The Asian giant has been a key ally and the largest economic partner of diplomatically isolated Khartoum.
“It (the visit) comes at a very critical moment for the Republic of South Sudan because our neighbour in Khartoum has declared war on the Republic of South Sudan,” Kiir told China’s President Hu Jintao.
President Kiir told the Chinese leader that he hoped China and the international community could offer “support and help” to his country, Chinese state television reported.
President Hu urged South Sudan and Sudan to remain calm and resolve the conflict through peaceful negotiations, repeating earlier statements by China’s foreign ministry.
“The top priority is to actively co-operate with the mediation efforts of the international community to stop the armed conflict in the border region,” Hu was quoted as saying by the government broadcaster. The African Union’s peace and security body also met yesterday to discuss the escalating conflict between Sudan and South Sudan, and the on-going political crises in Mali and Guinea-Bissau, urging an immediate end to the conflicts. AU security commissioner Ramtane Lamamra called for an immediate end to hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan, and the implementation of agreements brokered by the pan-African body.
“We need to see the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan not only put an immediate end to armed hostilities . . . but also to see these two brothers and neighbours implement all accords that have been put forward by the African Union panel,” he said.
Yesterday’s meeting was attended by the AU peace and security members and international observers from Canada, China, the European Union and United States.
Turning to Guinea-Bissau and Mali, Lamamra said, “It is important . . . to find fast, equitable, just and durable solutions to the conflict in Guinea-Bissau and in Mali,” at the meeting’s opening.
There is a need to “restore constitutional order and preserve the territorial integrity of the Republic of Mali,” he added.
Meanwhile, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki yesterday called for a ceasefire in Sudan and South Sudan.
Kibaki who was addressing Parliament in Nairobi said Kenya which hosted protracted negotiations that led to the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005 urged for an end to the escalating hostilities between the neighbouring nations. “Having played the role of an honest mediator to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Kenya calls for a ceasefire and an end to the escalating hostilities.
“Sudan and South Sudan must not return to war,” Kibaki said.
Kibaki said Nairobi welcomed the withdrawal from the oil rich area of Heglig by South Sudan and also implored the continued aerial bombardments in Bentiu town in South Sudan’s Unity state, and called on the country and its neighbour, Sudan, to embrace peace.
He added that the stability of Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan are critical to the prosperity of the Great Lakes region. The recent clashes between Sudan and South Sudan along the oil-rich disputed border have sparked fears of all-out war between the two nations.
It is the worst violence since South Sudan separated from the North in July. — AFP/Xinhua.