Sudan gov­ern­ment lead­ers on both sides rebuffed the claims made by aid groups dur­ing the week. A coali­tion of aid groups says that Sudan is very close to resum­ing it’s civil war. A new inci­dent of vio­lence was dis­cov­ered dur­ing the week where over 140 peo­ple died.

From Reuters, writer Andrew Heav­ens received from quotes of denial from gov­ern­ment officials

Sudan ended more than two decades of north-south civil war with the 2005 Com­pre­hen­sive Peace Agree­ment, but rela­tions between the two sides have remained tense.

Aid groups and cam­paign­ers issued a series of reports in recent days warn­ing there was a risk of fresh con­flict as Sudan counted down the days to national elec­tions in April and a ref­er­en­dum on whether the south should split off as an inde­pen­dent coun­try, due in Jan­u­ary 2011.

“The sit­u­a­tion in south­ern Sudan is very far from what has been depicted…It is not all doom and gloom,” Anne Itto, a senior mem­ber of the south’s dom­i­nant Sudan People’s Lib­er­a­tion Move­ment (SPLM) told reporters.

Itto, speak­ing in the south­ern cap­i­tal Juba, said the cam­paign­ers had failed to take into account sig­nif­i­cant improve­ments and devel­op­ment in the five years since the accord.

Sudan’s For­eign Min­istry said in a state­ment a report “from some for­eign organisations…that the north and the south are doomed to go back to war, was not cor­rect and was not backed by facts on the ground”.

There was a need to tighten secu­rity in the south, min­istry spokesman Moawia Osman Khalid told the state Suna news agency.

But “war is no longer an option for the rem­edy of the sit­u­a­tion between the north and the south, given the fact that the coun­try has tasted the woes of the war and its reper­cus­sions,” he added.

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