World Bulletin / News Desk

The Sudanese Army said Monday that it had killed 110 members of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) during an attack by the latter on South Kordofan, which was recaptured by the army on Friday.

"SPLM-N attempted to attack South Kordofan in a suicidal and desperate move, but the army countered the attack," Sudanese Army spokesman Col. Al-Sawarmi Khalid Saad said in a statement.

He added that the showdown between the Sudanese military and the rebels had lasted for three hours, noting that four Sudanese soldiers had been killed in the fighting.

Since 2011, the SPLM-N has waged an active insurgency against the Khartoum government in Sudan's Blue Nile and South Kordofan states.

Outlawed by the government, the movement consists mainly of fighters who sided with southern Sudan during the civil war, which ended in a 2005 peace treaty that opened the door to South Sudan's independence six years later.