Khartoum , Sudan ( CNN ) -- A mutiny led by members of the Sudanese Armed Forces ' Joint Integrated Units along the north/south border in Sudan has left up to 50 dead , officials said Monday . Fighting broke on Thursday in the city of Malakal near the airport when south Sudanese soldiers loyal to Gabriel Tang , a southern Sudanese militia leader who fought in a 22-year-old civil war alongside the Khartoum government , refused to turn in their weapons . An agreement to end the war , which pitted the Arab-Muslim-dominated government of north Sudan against the predominantly Christian and animist south , was signed in 2005 . The Joint Integrated Units are a coordinated military force consisting of the northern Sudanese Armed Forces and the southern Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army . Tang 's forces had been merged into the units along with SAF . `` The redeployment of Joint Integrated Units was scheduled to take place starting February 1 in accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement , '' said Maj. Gen. Ahmad al-No , spokesperson for the Joint Defense Council , which oversees security and military arrangements between northern and southern Sudan . `` Tang fled SAF nearly a month ago and is somewhere around Malakal , '' al-No said . Southern Sudanese voted last month in a referendum on whether to remain part of a united Sudan or go independent , with final results to be announced on Monday . Preliminary results show an overwhelming vote in favor of independence . Official independence would be declared in July this year . During the civil war , a number of southern militias loyal to Khartoum fought against the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement/Army ( SPLM/A ) , the rebel group that fought Khartoum and currently governs the south . Noting that it appears Tang is now in opposition to both Sudan 's military and the southern separatists , al-No told CNN , `` I am concerned that he may have and affect on the security in the region . ''
Fighting broke out Thursday in Sudan , near the border dividing northern , southern Malakal . Soldiers loyal to militia leader Gabriel Tang refused to turn in their weapons . Gabriel Tang had fought alongside government and loyalist forces in southern Sudan . Sudanese voted Thursday on a referendum for independence .