April 11, 2006 (Nairobi) – The SPLA says that a Radio Wau report that 7 people were killed and several others wounded in clashes among SPLA soldiers of the Joint Integrated Unit in Wau last week is not accurate.

The SPLA Chief of Military Intelligence of the four Bahr el Ghazal states, Brigadier Marial Nuor, says that only two SPLA soldiers were killed and one wounded in the clashes.

Brigadier Nuor told Sudan Radio Service by telephone on Monday that the clashes broke out when SPLA military authorities paid the salaries of one battalion but told the second battalion to wait for a few days before they would be paid.  According to Brigadier Nuor, the soldiers demanded to be paid immediately, went on a rampage and began shooting at their colleagues in the other battalion that had been paid.

He disputed reports that the Sudanese Armed Forces were involved in the clashes, saying the conflict was limited to SPLA soldiers.

[Brigadier Marial Nuor]: “It was just administrative misunderstanding between our own forces according to what I have received from confirmed sources.  Sudanese army there is nothing about them. They are within their places and the JIU, which is also a mix of the Sudanese army and those who came from the SPLA are there. This is what I know.”

The military official said that the situation is now calm and the soldiers involved in the shootout have been detained.