by Our Foreign Desk

SOUTH Sudan’s government accused Sudan yesterday of bombing two locations in its territory, killing at least one soldier and wounding others.

State Minister for Information Peter Hoth alleged that a suspected Sudanese warplane had bombed the Maban and Renk counties of Upper Nile state on Sunday and Monday.

He reported that one soldier had been killed in Renk, near the border with Sudan, and others wounded.

“We do not know the motive why the Sudanese are bombing inside the Republic of South Sudan,” Mr Hoth said by phone from Renk.

He said four children and a woman had been wounded when two bombs landed in Maban county on Sunday.

South Sudan army spokesman Colonel Philip Aguer confirmed the soldier’s death and said nine other military personnel had been wounded.

Col Aguer claimed that Sudan was probably responsible because it has the only hostile air force in the region.

He said the bombs had been dropped by an Antonov aircraft, a type which comprises a large part of Sudan’s air attack capabilities.

However, that claim was questionable, since the Russian Antonov company only produces transport aircraft.

In April, South Sudan accused Sudan of bombing northern Bahr al-Ghazal state, killing four people.

South Sudan broke away from Sudan in 2011, following decades of armed struggle and a peace agreement, but border skirmishes have continued.

A civil war has been raging in South Sudan since December 2013 between two factions of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and its armed wing.

The countries sometimes accuse each other of harbouring or supporting rebels.