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Sudan, South Sudan end talks without tangible progress

Xinhua, February 10, 2015 Adjust font size:

The newest round of negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan on demarcation of the joint border has failed to achieve any tangible progress, a Sudanese official said on Monday.

"It has been stressed on the points agreed upon during the previous meetings. There is nothing new," Abdalla Al-Sadiq, Sudan's head of the joint border demarcation committee, told reporters in Khartoum on Monday.

The two sides have concluded five days of talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa without positive outcomes, but agreed to form a technical team to resolve the difference relating to the demarcation of the two countries' joint border.

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 the oil-rich Abyei, Dabatal-Fakhar, Jabel Al-Migainis, Samaha and Kafia Kanji.

"These disputed areas gain great importance as they enjoy high population density besides that they are considered strategic reserve for many types of minerals," Abdalla Adam, a Sudanese strategic analyst, said, adding that resolving the issue is not an easy task and needs "significant concessions."

Adam believed that the dispute over the oil-rich Abyei area is the thorny issue which complicates the entire matter.

Another political analyst, Dr. Mohamed Hassan Saeed, said the border issue is complicated as the two countries failed to resolve it when they were still one.

"It was easier to resolve the issue before the separation (of South Sudan) as it is not logical to recognize establishment of a country before determining its borders," Saeed told Xinhua.

"Failure to agree on determined borders harms the interests of both countries, prevents the communication between the two peoples and hampers the trade movement along the borderline," he added.

In September 2012, Sudan and South Sudan signed a cooperation agreement in Addis Ababa under the patronage of the African Union. The agreement included a package of understandings over security, citizens' status, border and economy, and other oil- and trade-related issues. However, the signed deal did not tackle the issues of Abyei and border demarcation. Endit