Latest reports from the strategically important town of Wau in southern Sudan say government forces have beaten off an attack by the rebel movement, the Sudan People's Liberation Army.

The SPLA said earlier that it had captured Wau but the government television said it remained firmly under government control and that representatives of the national security and defence committee had visited the town.

Earlier a former rebel leader who has now joined the government, Riek Machar, told the BBC that SPLA forces attacked Wau on Wednesday night but, by the morning, had been defeated.

He said government flights to Wau had now resumed.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
 

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