More than 60 wounded in fighting in South Sudan

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — The International Committee of the Red Cross says more than 60 people have been wounded in fighting between South Sudan's army and a rebel group.

The international Red Cross says 62 people have been taken to one of their medical facilities in the last two weeks.

South Sudan's army has been battling rebels led by David Yau Yau. South Sudan accuses Sudan of supporting the rebels. Khartoum denies the allegations.

The international Red Cross's Ewan Watson said Monday that the group is seeing "fairly serious injuries" caused mostly by light weapons.

The number of deaths is not known because the area is not accessible by outside groups. The military and government did not immediately have casualty information.

Watson said many more people might be wounded that authorities don't know about.

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Fighting between rebel factions in east Congo

GOMA, Congo (AP) — Fighting erupted in eastern Congo early Friday between two factions of the M23 rebel group, according to officials on both sides.

The new splinter of M23 led by President Jean-Marie Runiga attacked the main faction, led by Gen. Sultani Makenga ,in Chanzu, near the border with Uganda, around midnight, said Seraphin Mirindi, spokesman for the splinter of M23. The fighting with heavy and light weapons continued until about 5 a.m. Friday.

An estimated 23 people died in the fighting, according to an officer with the main part of M23.

Some 4,000 civilians fled the renewed violence for Uganda, said Lucy Beck, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency. The U.N. is bracing itself for a greater influx of refugees in coming weeks, she said.

The M23 divided into two groups on Wednesday over disagreements on negotiations with the Congolese government. The splinter group is lead by the M23 president Jean-Marie Runiga and Gen. Baudoin Ngaruye. The new group is reported to be aligned with warlord Bosco Ntaganda.

The main part of M23 is led by Gen. Sultani Makenga and is based in Chanzu.

The group split on Wednesday after Makenga dismissed Runiga as the head of the M23 political branch. Tensions have been high within the rebel group for several weeks over negotiations with the Congolese government.

The new rebel faction wants "to take back Goma. But we want to carry on negotiating with the government," said Col. Vianney Kazarama, who belongs to Makenga's faction, who said that Bosco Ntaganda is with the splinter group. "They have money and have recruited soldiers."

However, the new rebel faction denies that Ntaganda is with them or that they want to take back Goma.

Bosco Ntaganda is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity he allegedly committed in eastern Congo. The United States government recently placed a bounty of $5 million dollars for capturing Ntaganda alive, according to diplomatic sources. Since its creation, the M23 has officially denied having Ntaganda in its ranks.

The new fighting and the split in the M23 appears to have scuttled the rebels' negotiations with Congolese President Joseph Kabila's government. Those talks were taking place in Kampala, Uganda.

The new fighting between the two M23 factions has allowed the resurgence of other rebel groups in eastern Congo.

The FDLR, a Hutu armed group linked to the Rwandan genocide, has recently taken some towns in eastern Congo. Other local armed groups such as the Mai Mai Shetani and the Nyatura have also infiltrated the M23 territory.

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Associated Press Writer Rodney Muhumza contributed to this report from Kampala, Uganda.

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Mali rebels fighting in Gao; car explodes in Kidal

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Islamic extremists clashed with military in Mali's northern city of Gao, a military official said Thursday, as French forces continued their push to eliminate remnants of al-Qaida-linked fighters who had controlled northern Mali.

Malian military spokesman Capt. Daouda Diarra said that fighters with the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO, attacked a Gao checkpoint late Wednesday and made their way into the city. The fighters were battling the army near the Town Hall in the city's center.

In Kidal, a town further north where control by French and Chad forces has been tentative, a car explosion in a mechanics garage killed two, including the driver and a security guard, a resident said.

Mossa Ansary said Thursday's explosion took place about 800 meters (875 yards) from a French military base. It was unclear if it was a suicide car bombing. French and Chadian forces are patrolling the city of Kidal, though it remains unclear if the northern administrative capital is secure.

Radical Islamic fighters spent weeks on the run from Malian cities under a French ground and air assault that began Jan. 11 after the rebels had pushed to southern territories. The French, meanwhile, are tightening a dragnet against the al-Qaida-linked militants in one of their last remaining redoubts, mountain sanctuaries near Algeria's border.

France's main military spokesman on Thursday said that a French Tigre attack helicopter fired on a pickup truck containing jihadist fighters during clashes in rugged northern Mali, killing about 10 insurgents.

Col. Thierry Burkhard said the firefight on Wednesday in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountain range, near the Algeria border, came in the third day of an operation code-named "Panther," as French forces track and try to eliminate the Islamic extremists.

Burkhard said the operation is ongoing in the area. More than 20 insurgents and one French legionnaire died in similar clashes on Tuesday.

France's government has said it still hopes to pull out of its Mali operation in the coming weeks — eager for African forces to help stabilize the impoverished West African country. But the French President said that France will "go all the way — that's to say, arresting the last terrorist chiefs in northern Mali."

Gao Mayor Sadou Diallo said about 1,000 French troops are in the Gao region, along with about 3,000 Malian and African soldiers.

U.N. discussions about an African force for Mali have been under way for months, alongside efforts for a European Union training mission to help the Malian military.

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Associated Press reporter Jamey Keaten in Paris contributed to this report.

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