THE rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLA) said Monday it was in firm control of the strategic town of Raga in the southwestern province of Bahr el-Ghazal, which it seized from the government at the weekend. Raga, which fell to the SPLA on Saturday, had been defended by 800 government troops, most of whom were killed, wounded or taken prisoner during the fighting, the rebel movement said in a statement. “The town is now under firm control of the SPLA,” the statement said. The SPLA said that pro-government militias in Raga had joined the rebel side “in big numbers”. The SPLA is made up of various animist and Christian tribes from southern Sudan and has been fighting domination by the Muslim north since 1983. The war and associated famine and disease have claimed up to 1.5 million lives, with at least another four million displaced, according to humanitarian sources. – AFP