Sudanese troops repelled rebel attacks on two villages in the war-torn South Kordofan region, killing 50 insurgents and losing four of their own men, the army has said.
Fighting has flared in the region in the past month after the end of the rainy season, which leaves roads impassable, and two weeks after peace talks between the rebels and the government ended.
The Sudan People's Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) attacked the villages of Bilinja and Al-Atmur with the loss of 50 fighters, army spokesman Colonel Al-Sawarmy Khaled Saad said in a statement yesterday.
Four government soldiers were also killed in the failed attack, Saad said. The villages lie south of Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state.
The SPLA-N could not be reached for comment.
On Monday, both the SPLA-N and the Sudanese Armed Forces issued statements claiming that they had repulsed attacks by the other side in South Kordofan.
The most recent clashes came two weeks after delegations from the government and rebels from South Kordofan and Blue Nile, where there is also unrest, ended peace talks in Addis Ababa on November 18, with mediators saying they were "not too far from a deal".
Fighting erupted in South Kordofan and Blue Nile state in 2011 when former rebels from the SPLA-N took up arms against Khartoum.
The mostly non-Arab insurgents complained of neglect and discrimination by Sudan's Arab-dominated regime.
