UN cannot impose will on Sudan: BashirBy AFP | Thursday, May 10   2012 at  14:30

Neither the United Nations nor the African Union can impose its will on Sudan, President Omar Al-Bashir said on Thursday, after fresh fighting along the border with South Sudan.

"We will implement what we want and, what we do not want, no one can impose upon us -- neither the UN Security Council nor the African Union Peace and Security Council," President Bashir said.

He was referring to a May 2 UN Security Council resolution calling for Sudan and South Sudan to cease hostilities along their border and settle unresolved issues after the South's separation last July following a 1983-2005 civil war.

The remarks were President Bashir's first about the resolution, and came a day after Sudan's army said it had fought with South Sudan along the disputed border on Wednesday, while the South said it came under renewed Sudanese air attack, violating a four-day-old UN-imposed ceasefire.

The UN resolution also ordered Sudan and South Sudan to pull troops back from their disputed frontier, effective Wednesday May 9, but Khartoum said it could not comply until there was a border agreement.

President Bashir made his comments in an address to about 1,000 oil industry workers marking the "liberation" last month of Sudan's main oil region of Heglig, which South Sudan occupied for 10 days in a move coinciding with waves of Sudanese air raids against the South, leading to fears of a wider war.

Civilian areas

Khartoum's Foreign ministry said last Saturday that it confirmed in writing to the UN Security Council and the African Union its commitment to stopping hostilities under the UN resolution.

But it also told them that Sudan had certain reservations "which may create some difficulties in fully implementing" it, a ministry statement said without elaborating.

The South's government also pledged to seek peace after the UN threatened sanctions if both sides did not stop fighting by last Friday evening.

The UN said the situation along the Sudan-South Sudan border "constitutes a serious threat to international peace and security".

On Wednesday the army in Khartoum said it had expelled South Sudanese troops and their rebel allies from two areas, Kafindibei and Kafia Kingi, in South Darfur state across from the South's Western Bahr el-Ghazal State.

Sudan's Foreign ministry has previously described Kafindibei and Kafia Kingi as disputed.

Earlier on Wednesday, Southern army spokesman Kella Kueth said Sudan had been "randomly bombarding civilian areas," in the border states of Upper Nile, Unity and Western Bahr el-Ghazal on Monday and Tuesday.

It was not possible to independently confirm his allegation and Sudan has repeatedly denied bombing the South.

South Sudan's army confirmed, however, that Kafindibei had been captured by Sudanese troops backed by air support on Monday.