Sudan: March 16, 2000

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Sudanese rebels want the international community to declare the southern Sudan a "no-fly zone" for Sudanese government aircraft. An SPLA statement refered to the south as "New Sudan." The SPLA statement was issued after a reported incident where an Khartoum AN-12 transport plane dropped 12 bombs on the town of Minule (near the Ugandan border). The Sudan government has used transports as bombers in the past, in part because the turbo-props are easier to maintain than jet engines. The Antonovs drop the bombs from high altitude in order to avoid SPLA AAA and shoulder-fired SAMs.