Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2014 23:45:01 +0100
Sudan, S.Sudan to resume work on disputed border
<http://www.afp.com/> AFP
By Abdelmoneim Abu Idris Ali 04.11.2014
Khartoum (AFP) - The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan agreed Tuesday to
resume work to demarcate their contested border, a dispute that boiled over
into armed conflict between the countries in 2012.
The south split from the north in 2011 under a peace agreement ending 22
years of civil war, and the two remain at odds over unresolved issues from
the secession, including the frontier.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir arrived in Khartoum on Tuesday for talks
that followed a new flare-up of fighting in his country's 11-month civil
war.
Kiir and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir said a joint committee would
resume meetings to oversee "the demarcation of the buffer zone on the
border, with the deployment of troops outside the buffer zone".
Juba and Khartoum briefly battled for the Heglig oil field on the frontier
before Sudan took the area.
The conflict led to the signing of agreements in September 2012 appointing a
joint body to create a buffer zone between the two, although this was
suspended in May.
The presidents said in the joint statement read by Foreign Minister Ali
Karti that they would again cease "supporting and hosting the rebel groups
from both sides," without giving further details.
Last week, rebels attacked the oil town of Bentiu, capital of South Sudan's
Unity state on the border, ending a lull in fighting during the rainy
season, which renders roads impassable to military vehicles.
A visibly tired Kiir said he would work with Sudan to "lift its foreign
debts," without elaborating.
He had been due to leave late Tuesday but Sudan's ambassador to Juba,
Mutrief Siddig, told reporters Kiir would spend an extra night in Khartoum
because his plane had suffered "technical problems".
- Oil threatened -
Clashes between the rebels and troops loyal to Kiir have also raged in South
Sudan's Upper Nile state, another key oil-producing area, further
threatening exports though Sudan, a key revenue earner for Khartoum.
Southern oil exports through Port Sudan were also on the agenda for the
talks, along with security issues, Sudan's ambassador to Juba said ahead of
the meeting.
The South's secession saw it take most of the formerly united country's
470,000 barrels per day of oil production.
But the civil war, which erupted in the South last December, has seriously
hit its oil output and Khartoum's earnings from transit fees on exports,
which all pass through Sudan.
What began as a political dispute between Kiir and his former vice president
Riek Machar has degenerated into a brutal ethnic conflict between their
Dinka and Nuer peoples, driving 1.8 million people from their homes.
Hundreds of thousands have fled across the border to camps in Sudan.
<http://news.yahoo.com/sudan-president-khartoum-talks-civil-war-flares-11025
8859.html> South Sudan's President Salva Kiir (L) and his Sudanese
counterpart Omar al-Bashir attend a press conference at Khartoum's
airport on November 4, 2014
View photo
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir (L) and his Sudanese counterpart Omar
al-Bashir attend a press conference at Khartoum's airport on November 4,
2014 (AFP Photo/Ashraf Shazly)
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