At least seven people died when a Sudanese military plane bombed the southern Sudanese town of Narus earlier this week, a rebel spokesman said in a statement released in Nairobi Saturday.
Samson Kwaje, spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), said that the plane hovered over the civilian settlement of Narus near the Kenyan border for 30 minutes on Thursday before dropping 15 bombs on the town center.
Five people were killed on the spot and seven others were seriously wounded.
Two other people injured in the bombing died a few hours later, while many others suffered light injuries.
Accusing the Sudanese government of vigorously pursuing its "cowardly" policy of indiscriminate aerial bombardment of civilian and humanitarian targets in the south, Kwaje stressed that "Narus has no military significance as there is no SPLA garrison in the area."
"Narus is a home to several non-governmental organizations, including Sudan Medical Care (SMC) that carries out health training and primary health care programs, the Diocese of Torit (DOT), which runs education and health units, the New Sudan Council of Churches and UNICEF's water programs," Kwaje said.
Thursday's bombing heavily damaged an SMC's health center ward. Last month the whole building housing DOT health center and medical staff was razed to the ground in another bombing.
Kwaje appealed to the international community to restrain Khartoum from "these criminal acts on the civilian population."
"We also call on the UN to impose a 'no-fly zone' on Sudanese military aircraft all over the liberated areas of the south to protect the civil population and to safeguard the security of NGOs," Kwaje urged.
The mainly Christian and animist SPLA rebels of southern Sudan have been fighting Khartoum's successive Arab and Islamic governments since 1983 – NAIROBI (AFP)
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