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Sudan, South Sudan agree to set timeline for issues
Omar al-Bashir and Salva Kiir try to push forward on stalled security, oil and border agreements.
The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan agreed Saturday to abide by timelines to be drawn up to implement a raft of security, oil and border deals stalled for over three months, mediators said.
With the two neighbors increasingly cash-strapped after a spat led South Sudan to shut down its oil output a year ago, the announcement offered fresh hope of a breakthrough in long-running talks to end the crisis.
African Union (AU) mediator Thabo Mbeki said at the end of a summit meeting in the Ethiopian capital that Sudan President Omar al-Bashir and his Southern counterpart Salva Kiir had recommitted to the key deals and agreed to enact them “unconditionally”.
“Our panel is preparing a matrix for the implementation of all of the existing agreements with time-frames,” said Mr. Mbeki, a former South African president, adding that the AU would complete the timelines by January 13.
The deals, which were signed in September but were never implemented, include the restarting of South Sudan oil exports through north Sudan pipelines, as well as the reopening of border points for general trade.
They also included the withdrawal of troops back from contested border regions to create a demilitarized buffer zone hoped to ease tensions between the two armies, who came close to all out war in March and April 2012.
The summit of the leaders, whose nations are both struggling with economic austerity cuts following South Sudan’s halting of oil exports through Sudan following a dispute over fees, was the latest of repeated rounds of AU-mediated talks.
