he UN force commander Lt General Jasbir Lidder revealed that about three thousand six hundred soldiers of the Sudan Armed Forces are still in the oil producing areas in southern Sudan, specifically in the Upper Nile and Unity states.

The secretary general of the SPLM, Bagan Amoum, had earlier appealed to the UN Mission in Sudan to reveal the facts about the deployment of the Sudan Armed Forces and the SPLA following mutual accusations recently on the escalation of the political crisis between the two partners in the Government of National Unity.

In Khartoum, a group of civil society organizations have proclaimed their support of the SPLM against what it called the National Congress intransigence in the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

The Deputy Chairman of the SPLM in the northern sector Yassir Arman addressed a gathering of Democratic journalists saying the SPLM has other options to resolve the crisis and that the movement persists in the suspension of its participation in the Government of National Unity.