AU urges Sudan, South Sudan to establish border demilitarized zone

The African Union (AU) on Monday called on Sudan and South Sudan to resume talks to create a demilitarized zone along their common border.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Monday received in Khartoum the head of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan (AUHIP) Thabo Mbeki.

"One of the issues we discussed with the president is that both the governments of Sudan and South Sudan are committed to the implementation of agreement on security along the border," Mbeki told reporters following the meeting.

"Our panel therefore will be convening a meeting of the joint political and security mechanism of the two countries to create a safe demilitarized zone," he added.

Sudan government, for its part, expressed readiness to implement the cooperation agreement signed by the two sides in 2012.

"Sudan had agreed on determining the zero line according to the road-map presented by the AU," Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid, Sudanese Presidential Assistant, told reporters.

"However, South Sudan, which accepted the road-map at the beginning, rejected it later, which crippled the process of negotiations on determining the zero line and establishing the demilitarized zone," he noted.

Sudan and South Sudan signed a matrix deal on March 8 in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to implement a previously signed security arrangement, which stipulates an immediate withdrawal of forces from the joint borders along with establishing a safe demilitarized zone between the two countries.

The matrix deal also included other issues related to border demarcation and economy. But the agreements did not tackle the issue of oil-rich Abyei.

The border issue constitutes one of the biggest barriers hampering the settlement of differences between Sudan and South Sudan, which involves disputes over five border areas, including Abyei, Dabatal-Fakhar, Jabel Al-Migainis, Samaha and Kafia Kanji.