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Sudan, South Sudan conflict: relations warming?
The South has also accused its northern neighbor of launching air strikes on its territories. Khartoum has denied reports of specific attacks but said it had a right to use its air power in self-defence.
Both sides also accuse each other of backing rebel militia, and both deny each other’s claims.
The crisis has halted nearly all oil production in the region, strangling both oil-dependent economies.
Bashir said the country’s economic hardship was temporary following the loss in oil revenues and that it was not a “catastrophe that heralds collapse”.
Sudan lost three-quarters of its oil after South Sudan seceded from its northern neighbour in July as part of a 2005 settlement that ended two decades of civil war.
The two sides have since been in conflict over oil revenue shares, border demarcation and citizenship. They are supposed to sit down to talks by an AU-imposed deadline of Tuesday and resolve all outstanding issues within three months.
Before South Sudan’s seizure of Heglig, the oilfield was producing about half of Sudan’s 115,000 bpd output. Sudan’s oil minister has said Heglig has started pumping oil again, but has not specified the amount it was producing.
