By Jeremy Clarke
JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - Clashes in two Sudanese flashpoints left scores dead, officials said Wednesday, reigniting fears for the stability of the country's oil- producing south in the countdown to its independence.
Arab nomads and militias fought southern police in the contested north-south border area of Abyei Wednesday killing at least six people, the latest in a series of clashes, officials said.
Renegade militia fighters clashed with south Sudan's army on Sunday in the southern oil state of Jonglei, where French oil giant Total is due to start exploring, both sides said.
The rebels reported just short of 100 died in the state that borders Ethiopia. The southern army said the figure was "exaggerated" and it lost 40 soldiers.
The violence has cast a shadow over mass celebrations after southerners overwhelmingly voted to declare independence from the north in a referendum in January.
The referendum was promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with the north.
Rebel leader George Athor accused the southern army (SPLA) of starting the fighting in Jonglei Sunday and earlier last month, breaking the terms of a cease-fire agreed in January.
"They attacked us early in the morning Sunday. We dispersed the SPLA forces and we captured a big number of arms. Also we managed to kill 86 soldiers. We lost 12 of our comrades," he said.
Athor insisted he was ready to return to negotiations with the southern leadership.
"I am really worried because the new country will be like a baby born dead. If you start with a guerrilla force fighting the government, I don't see any development that can happen."
Athor was a senior member of the rebel southern army during the civil war. He took up arms after saying he was cheated out of the Jonglei governorship in last year's general elections.
The SPLA accused Athor of breaking the truce by massacring more than 200 people in Jonglei mid February.
Northern Misseriya nomads and allied militias attacked the village of Maker Wednesday in Abyei, killing at least six southern police, said the speaker of Abyei's administration Charles Abyei.
Southern army spokesman Philip Aguer said the number of people killed in a series of clashes in Abyei this week could be as high as 70.
No one was immediately available to comment from the Misseriya.
Abyei was a battleground in the decades-long civil war between north and south Sudan that ended in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement -- the accord that promised the southern secession referendum.
Abyei residents were supposed to have their own referendum on whether to join north or south Sudan in January. The vote never took place amid disputes over who was qualified to vote.
The south regularly has accused north Sudan of arming Athor's forces and Misseriya fighters to destabilise the region and keep control of its oil, an allegation dismissed by Khartoum.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Heavens in Khartoum; editing by Michael Roddy)
