Sudan: 660 dead since 2011 in fighting with rebels

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Sudan says that fighting in two states along its disputed border with South Sudan has left over 600 people dead over the past 16 months, releasing rare casualty figures in an ongoing conflict that has inflamed tensions between the two countries.

Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud told the Sudanese parliament Tuesday that 662 people had been killed in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, where rebel forces are battling government troops, since fighting broke out in June 2011. The minister’s comments were quoted by the daily paper Al Sahafa on Wednesday.