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Sudan, South Sudan face sanctions if they don’t comply with AU demands
Clashes along the ill-defined border between the former civil-war foes has led to a standoff over the Heglig oil field after it was seized earlier this month by troops from South Sudan, which declared independence last year.
The Security Council last week discussed possibly imposing sanctions on Sudan and South Sudan if the violence did not stop.
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir said hostilities this week – after South Sudan had said it would withdraw from Heglig – amounted to a declaration of a war by his northern neighbor.
Distrust runs deep between the neighbors who are at loggerheads over the position of their border, how much the landlocked south should pay to transport its oil through Sudan, and the division of national debt, among other issues.
Both are poor countries – South Sudan is one of the poorest in the world – and the dispute between them has already halted nearly all the oil production that underpins both economies.
