Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has said his goal is to "liberate" the people of South Sudan from the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the ruling party in Juba, dpa cited media reports as saying Thursday. Addressing youth groups in Sudan late Wednesday, al-Bashir promised that his countrymen would hear "good news" from the volatile border region, according to the semi-official Sudanese Media Centre. The president also implied that either Khartoum would rule Juba or the reverse, which observers worry could be a declaration of war. Recent outbreaks of violence along the poorly demarcated border between the two countries has been the worst since South Sudan broke away from Sudan last year, ending decades of civil war. Last week, South Sudan seized the Heglig oil fields from Sudan. Khartoum has vowed to recapture the strategic area that produces about half of its oil output. While Heglig has become the focus of the recent rise in tensions between the two sides, sporadic fighting has also broken out elsewhere along the border. Sudan's parliament this week branded South Sudan as an official "enemy." Meanwhile, in South Sudan, SPLM officials have accused al-Bashir of "looking for war" and promised to wage counter attacks. The UN Security Council is considering imposing sanctions on the countries. The United Nations and the African Union have warned that a "logic of war" was prevailing in the region, and urged both sides to return to the negotiation table to resolve their differences.
