(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) The South Sudanese army has dismissed recent accusations by Sudan that it is providing support to rebels in Sudan's western Darfur province.
"These accusations are groundless," army spokesman Philip Aguer told reporters on Monday.
The Sudanese military on Sunday accused Juba of supporting Darfurian rebel groups following clashes in the troubled region.
The army asserted that the rebel Justice and Equality Movement was using South Sudan's Bahr al-Ghazal region as a jumping-off point to enter Darfur.
"The government of South Sudan has continued harboring and supporting the terrorists," military spokesman Col. Al-Sawarmy Khaled Saad said in a statement.
Since 2003, Darfur has been the scene of a ferocious war between the Sudanese government and three rebel movements. The conflict has left some 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to UN figures.
In 2009, the Darfur conflict prompted the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir amid allegations that Sudanese troops and allied militias had committed atrocities in the troubled region.
Aguer argued that Sudan's accusations were "an attempt by Khartoum to justify support for the rebellion of [South Sudan's sacked vice president] Riek Machar."
South Sudan € which seceded from Sudan in 2011 € has been shaken by violence since late 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused Machar of leading a failed coup attempt against his regime.
Tens of thousands have reportedly been killed in subsequent violence, with some 2 million uprooted from their homes and 2.5 million at risk of starvation, according to recent UN estimates.
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