MORE than 20 Chinese nationals were missing after an attack by rebels against a camp belonging to a Chinese company operating in Sudan’s South Kordofan area, the Chinese Embassy in Khartoum confirmed yesterday.

    The embassy said it was following the issue and making contact with Sudanese authorities.

    A spokesman of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement’s (SPLM) northern sector said yesterday the movement was holding 29 Chinese nationals working for a Chinese company operating in the field of roads in South Kordofan state which has recently witnessed armed clashes.

    “Armed clashes took place between our forces and the Sudanese army in an area near al-Abbasiya Tagali town in South Kordofan. We have controlled the area and 29 Chinese were held,” SPLM spokesman Arno Taloudy told Xinhua by phone from the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

    “The Chinese workers have been transported to a safe area and they are in good health and in safe hands,” he said.

    South Kordofan state Governor Ahmed Haroun on Saturday announced that an armed group belonging to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army had attacked earlier in the day the site of a Chinese company operating in the state.

    The official SUNA news agency quoted Haroun as saying that a group of rebels launched an attack on the site of the Chinese company on the circular road between al-Abbasiya and Rashad localities near al-Mugarah area.

    The governor said the armed forces have immediately and firmly dealt with the situation, noting that the situation needs a high level of wisdom so that none of the 35 people working in the company, most of them Chinese, would be affected.

    South Kordofan, on the border between Sudan and South Sudan, has been witnessing armed clashes between the Sudanese army and the SPLM’s northern sector since June last year.

    Khartoum earlier ordered the SPLM forces to leave all the areas within north Sudan territories or disarm the movement’s fighters if they wanted to stay in the north.

    Khartoum accuses South Sudan of supporting the rebellion which is active on the borderline between the north and the south, particularly Blue Nile and South Kordofan areas.(Xinhua)