Defense and security officials from Sudan and South Sudan are expected to resume talks this week as they seek to implement a deal on border security to pave way for the resumption of the South's transit oil shipments through Sudanese territory, officials said Monday.
Defense and security officials from
Sudan
and
South
Sudan
are expected to resume talks this week as they seek to implement a deal
on border security to pave way for the resumption of the South's transit oil
shipments through Sudanese territory, officials said Monday.
South Sudan's delegation, headed by chief oil negotiator Pagan Amum, traveled
Monday to the Sudanese capital Khartoum in search of a deal which is expected
to unlock the newly independent nation's oil shipments, after nearly a year of
closure, said Information Minister Barnaba Benjamin. The talks are expected to
start Tuesday.
"Oil facilities are on standby, shipments will start as soon as a deal is
reached," Mr. Benjamin said. The first round of talks ended in a stalemate
in
Juba
early last month.
The former civil war foes are meant to create a 10-kilometer demilitarized zone
along their common border, to ease tensions.
South
Sudan
threw the economies of the two nations into turmoil in January after
halting its 350,000 barrels-a-day oil shipments, amid a bitter spat over oil
transit fees with
Sudan
.
The two nations edged close to an all out war in April, following a spate of
deadly clashes along the border. Rabie Abdelaty, the Sudanese government
spokesman, said that negotiators expect a deal by the end of the week to allow
the creation of the buffer zone. "Our main concern is security along the
border,
South Sudan
must do their part, but we are optimistic,"
said Mr. Abdelaty.
Oil shipments were initially expected to resume last week, but
Sudan
blocked the arrangements, demanding that
South Sudan
must
first disarm former rebel allies, Sudan People's Liberation Army North, who are
operating in its oil producing states of
South Kordofan
and
Blue
Nile
.
The rebels fought alongside
South Sudan
during the two-decade civil war with
Sudan
but
the south says it has since ceased its cooperation with them. Analysts expect
little headway in the normalization of the two nation's relations as long as
the SPLM-N remains active. Mr. Benjamin said Monday that
South
Sudan
"has nothing" to do with the rebels.
South Sudan
expects to start shipping as many as 200,000
barrels-a-day once
Sudan
clears shipments. The landlocked nation is struggling under the burden of a
host of economic difficulties emanating from the closure of oil output. The
country retained 75% of the oil fields following its secession in July last
year but has to rely on pipelines that straddle through the north to export its
crude.
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