S. Sudan says it will suspend talks with north

Southern Sudan is suspending talks and diplomatic contact with northern Sudan over claims that the northern government is funding militias in the south, a top Southern Sudanese official said Sunday.

The announcement, which follows clashes that have killed hundreds of people in recent months, could further destabilize what will become the world's newest country in July.

Pagan Amum, the secretary-general of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, on Sunday repeated allegations that the northern government is arming local tribes to use as proxy forces, a tactic it has repeatedly used in both southern Sudan and the western region of Darfur.

"The country is in a crisis because the (northern ruling party) has been planning and working to destabilize Southern Sudan," he told reporters in the southern capital of Juba. He offered to provide documentary evidence on Monday.

The oil-rich south voted in January to secede from the north, but there are many issues that still remain unaddressed, including the sharing of oil revenues, the status of southerners or northerners living across the border, and who controls the disputed border region of Abyei, a fertile area near large oil fields.

Many southerners fear the north does not want to lose southern oil revenues and the two regions may resume their decades-long civil war.

Amum said that the northern government wanted "to overthrow the government of Southern Sudan before July and to install a puppet government" in order to "deny the independence of Southern Sudan.

"They have stepped up their destabilization of Southern Sudan by creating, training, and arming and financing various militia groups in Southern Sudan," he said.

Negotiations over the future of the volatile and contested north-south borderland of Abyei were set to resume Monday in Khartoum between Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and southern leader Salva Kiir, with former South African president Thabo Mbeki mediating the talks, but Amum said Sunday that these negotiations would not go ahead as planned.

Unrest in the Middle East and North Africa -- country by country

Demonstrations have spread across parts of the Middle East and North Africa. Here is the latest from each country and the roots of the unrest.

Friday developments:

BAHRAIN

Hundreds of people were injured in Bahrain Friday, when rival groups clashed over an attempted march in the town of Riffa, a residential area where the ruling Al-Khalifa family lives.

The national health ministry said 774 people were injured and 107 were hospitalized in the wake of the fighting.

Roots of unrest:

Protesters initially took to the streets of Manama to demand reform and the introduction of a constitutional monarchy. But some are now calling for the removal of the royal family, which has led the Persian Gulf state since the 18th century. Young members of the country's Shiite Muslim majority have staged protests in recent years to complain about discrimination, unemployment and corruption, issues they say the country's Sunni rulers have done little to address. The Bahrain Center for Human Rights said authorities launched a clampdown on dissent in 2010. It accused the government of torturing some human rights activists.

More than 100 killed in disputed Sudan region

Southern Sudanese officials on Thursday blamed the north's military for attacks that killed more than 100 people this week around a disputed town between north and south Sudan.

Women and children fled en masse from the town of Abyei, a region that has long been seen as the major sticking point between north and south. Southern Sudan voted in January to secede from the north and is on course to become the world's newest country in July.

"Now all the women and children have evacuated the town. They have moved south because they expect more fighting in the town," said Father Peter Suleiman, a Catholic priest who spoke to the Associated Press by phone from Abyei town on Thursday.

Col. Philip Aguer, the spokesman for Southern Sudan's military, said more than 70 people were killed in fighting between Sunday and Tuesday. Aguer said that armed members of the Arab cattle-herding Misseriya tribe, militia fighters and northern army forces attacked several villages north of the town of Abyei.

Aguer said the southern government blames the north's Sudanese Armed Forces and the government of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for the violence.