North Sudan claims control of flashpoint town

SUDAN’S flashpoint Abyei area is a “Northern town,” the North’s occupying army has said, dismissing southern and international calls yesterday to pull troops out after days of fighting there.

“Abyei will remain a Northern town until the population decides on their situation by themselves,” said Khartoum’s defence minister Abdulrahim Mohammed Hussein, quoted by the official Suna news agency.

The fertile border region, claimed by both North and South, was due to vote on its future in January alongside a referendum on independence for the South, which delivered a landslide for secession.