Sudan to pull troops out of Abyei

Reports have emerged that Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir and the South's Leader Salva Kiir have agreed to withdraw troops from the oil-rich region of Abyei. Last month, Sudan's army seized the disputed town in what the South called an “act of war,” subsequently killing southern soldiers and civilians.

South Sudan is set to become independent in July, after the majority of South Sudanese people voted in favour of secession in January. The status of Abyei is yet to be resolved after a referendum on its future was shelved.

It is estimated that around 140,000 people have fled Abyei and the neighbouring region of South Kordofan because of the violence.

Neither Al-Bashir nor Kiir have confirmed the deal, but experts say the discussions, which took place in Addis Ababa, are a significant step forward. Before heading for the Ethiopian capital, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged both sides to accept the offer of Ethiopian troops to be deployed to the region, which is set to become a demilitarised zone.

Former South African president Thabo Mbeki and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi helped mediate the deal.

Abyei was granted a special status under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the two decade civil war between the North and the South. Terms under the agreement stipulate that both sides have to keep their troops out until a referendum to determine Abyei's future.

Sources: BBC News, Sudan Tribune, Voice of America

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South Sudan accuses North Sudan of plot

South Sudan has accused North Sudan of planning to overthrow the south's government, and has subsequently ceased bilateral talks. A senior official with the south's ruling party, Pagan Amum, said that Khartoum is arming rebel groups in preparation to destabilize South Sudan and annihilate the region's leaders before secession in July.

Amum also said that the north's ruling party is arming Arab tribes so that they can carry out genocide as they did in Darfur. The National Congress Party (NCP) officials have dismissed Amum's accusations as baseless and “ridiculous”.

The Guardian quoted Amum as saying: "They have stepped up their destabilization of southern Sudan by creating, training and arming and financing various militia groups in southern Sudan.”

Some 99 per cent of southern Sudanese voted for independence from the north of Sudan in a referendum held in January. The referendum for the oil-rich south was part of a deal to end decades of north-south conflict.

South Sudan is due to split from the North on 9th July, however, the two sides are yet to settle a number of key issues, including the future of the oil rich Abeyi region located on the north-south border. It is estimated that at least 40 people have been killed during the most recent fighting in the area. Voters in the region did not take part in the January referendum, and are expected to vote at an unspecified date to decide what side Abeyi will join.

Sources: UPI, Voice of America, Reuters, The Guardian

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North and South Sudan agree to co-operate on debt and border issues

South Sudan will help the north get relief on its $38 billion in debt, as long as the north 'cooperates' on border and other issues in the countdown to the south's independence in July, a southern official said.

At the end of a week-long meeting with northern leaders, SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum, said "We are ready to join the north in joint efforts for debt relief,” according to Reuters.

"But our participation is conditional to the cooperation of the north in all the other areas including Abyei, as well as also assuming the redemption of the Sudanese currency as we change the currency."

Representatives from both sides met in the Ethiopian resort town of Debre Zeit, for meetings mediated by the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan (AUHIP), led by former South African president Thabo Mbeki. While little concrete was accomplished, both sides agreed to send a joint team to the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to campaign for debt relief.

The question of what will happen to Sudan's debt when it becomes two countries has been one of the most pressing issues in the run-up to the south's independence. The SPLM has said previously that they will not share the country's foreign debt, saying that it was money borrowed to finance the northern army's fight against the south in the civil war.

Reuters reports that a note by the IMF said much of Sudan's debt dates back to the 1960s, when it borrowed on poor terms to finance large industrial projects. Nearly 90 per cent of Sudan's debt is owed to bilateral and commercial creditors, with their own requirements, and would take at least three years to clear, according to a paper by the Center for Global Development.

At the week-long meetings, the two sides also discussed the future of the oil sector and the two state-owned oil companies, Sudapet and Nilepet. Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which brought the two-decade long civil war to an end, the north and the south share the revenues from southern oil 50-50. Most of Sudan's oil reserves are in the South, but the pipelines and refineries are in the north. Regardless of what new deal is negotiated, the north is almost certain to get fewer revenues from the south after its independence.

The two sides discussed a range of other issues, including border demarcation, ownership over the border region of Abyei, currency issues, and Nile water ownership.

Talks will resume in Sudan before the two sides return to Ethiopia on 5th April, for another round of negotiations, according to the AUHIP.

Meanwhile, violence has continued to take place in Abyei, according to the Satellite Sentinel Project, a group backed by George Clooney and Google. The group uses satellite images to track violence along the border area in the wake of January's independence referendum. New images show that some 300 buildings were burned in a village near Abyei on Saturday 5th March.

Abyei has seen a wave of attacks in recent days that have killed more than 100 people and displaces tens of thousands.

"Village burning has caused tens of thousands to be displaced, unknown numbers of civilian casualties, and the deliberate destruction of at least three communities," said Clooney.

The latest images show an attack on Saturday, 5th March, on the village of Tajalei. Charles Abyei, speaker of the parliament in the Abyei area said that it was the third village to be attacked. After the first two villages were attacked, rumours spread that Tajalei would be next, so civilians fled.

"The place was empty and these elements of the Popular Defence Forces came and found nobody except one man who was mentally sick," said Abyei. "They killed him and they burned down the whole village."

The Popular Defence Forces that Abyei blames are a milita that was used as a proxy force by the northern Sudanese military throughout the civil war.

A round of talks over Abyei is due to begin on Monday 7th March, but officials from Abyei are not optimistic. "We are not expecting anything to come out of the talks," the Canadian Press quoted Charles Abyei as saying.

"If Khartoum was serious they would not have supplied the whole areas of northern Abyei with arms. They have the intention of occupying the whole area of Abyei to try to control it."

Sources: Sudan Tribune, The Canadian Press, Reuters Africa, Satellite Sentinel Project

For more news and expert analysis about the Sahara region, please see Sahara Focus.

Qadhafi urges Southerners to remain part of united Sudan

Colonel Qadhafi has said that Southern Sudanese would be better united than independent from their Northern counterparts. Qadhafi, who was one of the key supporters of the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) since its inception in the 1980s, has urged the Southerners to remain united with the North in the upcoming self-determination referendum.

"As for south Sudan, the matter depends on referendum, even though I advice brothers in the south to stay with the great Sudan instead of a dwarf country in the south" said Qadhafi.

According to a number of in-country sources the South Sudan president, and SPLM chairman, Salva Kiir was assured by Colonel Qadhafi of his support for southern Sudan's independence, and informed that if the Southerners vote for independence “they shouldn't be frightened of anybody” because he “will stand with them”.

Kiir added that Qadhafi stated that the British colonial power made a mistake when they allowed South Sudan to be part of the North back in 1956, and quoted the Libya leader as saying that “they should have been separated either to become an independent state or join any country in east Africa”.

Colonel Qadhafi has since reiterated that he would support the independence of South Sudan, if its citizens decide so in the 2011 referendum, most notably in a meeting with Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) leader Khalil Ibrahim, but it appears the Colonel has changed his mind once again.

Source: Sudan Tribute

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