Dozens of people have been killed in clashes between South Sudan’s Army and a rebel faction near Fangak town in Jonglei state earlier this week, officials said on Wednesday.

Rebel leader George Athor claimed later that about 100 people, mostly soldiers of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), were killed in the latest fighting. But the SPLA said actual death toll in the fighting was closer to 40.

South Sudan Army spokesman Col. Philip Aguer told reporters on Wednesday that deaths in the fighting was not something to be “proud of,” and accused the Athor-led rebel faction of “refusing peace, amnesty, and the cease-fire.”

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Brega: In a fierce day-long battle, rebel forces in this strategic oil town successfully repelled an attack on Wednesday by government loyalists backed by artillery and war planes, witnesses in the town said.

At least six were confirmed dead and 16 wounded in the fighting, the witnesses said, and the death toll was expected to rise.

The attack seemed to spearhead a broader effort by the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to reassert control over strategic oil assets in the eastern part of the country, which have been seized by rebel forces in recent weeks.

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Senegal has cut diplomatic ties with Iran, accusing Tehran of supplying weapons to separatist rebels in its southern Casamance region, the foreign ministry said.

“Senegal has decided to break off diplomatic relations with the Republic of Iran,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement linked the Iranian weapons with an attack on Sunday in Casamance, the latest in a string of such attacks by rebels engaged in one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts, which resulted in the deaths of three Senegalese troops.

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The Ethiopian army is fighting two rebels in two different borders as it tries to secure its border towns.

Ethiopian troops supporting Somalia’s weak transitional forces have been battling al-Shabaab insurgents for the past week in the town of Beled-hawo, near the Somalia-Ethiopia-Kenya border.

The fighting erupted early hours of Wednesday when Ethiopia tried to fairwell more than 2,000 Somali police across the border. They have been receiving training in Ethiopia since 2009. Minutes after their deployment they came under attack from heavily-armed al-Shabaab insurgents.

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Some 50 people, many of them fighters, were killed Wednesday in clashes across Somalia, witnesses and officials said.

The deaths came as Somali government forces backed by African Union troops launched a fresh offensive against al-Qaeda-inspired rebels.

“We have counted at least 20 civilians killed,” Ali Muse, head of the Mogadishu ambulance service said.

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There are at least 10,000 dead and 50,000 wounded in Libya, according to reports by Al Arabiya on Twitter quoting a member of the International Criminal Court.

The death toll was reportd by the Libyan member of the ICC, Sayed al Shanuka, who was interviewed from Paris.

The official figures provided by the Libyan government yesterday indicated 300 dead, while this morning Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini stated that he believed more in the death of ‘’more than 1,000 innocents”.

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Heavy clashes between Somaliland forces and Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SCC) rebel group re-started in the second day in the village of Maygaagle in Buhodle district in Sool region in northern Somalia, locals said on Monday.

Witnesses said heavy gun battle and bombardments, which the two warring sides had been exchanging, could be heard around the battle zones.

Sources told Shabelle that at least 8 people were killed and more 10 others hurt during the clashes today.

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