Sudan pulls out troops as talks resume

ADDIS ABABA, Wednesday

Khartoum, in an apparent peace gesture, has reported that it has pulled out troops from the contested Abyei region to end a year-long occupation, a Lebanon-sized area whose ownership is key.

A UN spokesman confirmed the pullout, which was in line with a UN Security Council demand for both sides to demilitarise the territory.

Abyei is one of the key disputes between Sudan and South Sudan, which have been fighting each other along their uncharted border.

Sudanese troops stormed the region in May 2011, forcing some 110,000 people to flee southwards, where the majority remains in impoverished camps.

“SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) deployed out of Abyei area this evening and they gave the military compound there to UN peacekeepers,” said the Sudanese Media Centre (SMC), which is close to the security apparatus.

Diplomatic sources said the pullout involved about 300 troops. “We declared yesterday that we’re going to redeploy so we are going to do whatever we declared,” Khartoum’s negotiator Qadir said.

Meanwhile, top negotiators for Sudan and South Sudan have held their first talks since deadly border fighting last month took them to the brink of war, even as Juba accused Khartoum of fresh air strikes.

Teams from both sides are in the Ethiopian capital for African Union-led talks which were stalled by heavy clashes last month, the worst fighting since the South won independence last July.

Khartoum stressed on Wednesday its “commitment to reach a negotiated settlement to all issues of differences” and promised “its full adherence to peace and stability between the two countries,” it said in a statement released as talks began.

Sudan added that it hoped the talks would mark a “new chapter” in relations “away from conflict and warring.”

Southern President Salva Kiir said ahead of the Tuesday talks that “amicable dialogue on the outstanding issues with Khartoum is the only option for peace.”

The UN Security Council earlier this month ordered both sides to cease fighting and return to talks or face possible sanctions.

Idriss Mohammed Abdel Qadir from Khartoum and Pagan Amum from Juba began the talks mediated by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, and also attended by the US special envoy on Sudan, Princeton Lyman.

However, Mr Amum said Sudanese war planes bombed border areas in three Southern states — Unity, Western and Northern Bahr el Ghazal — for the fourth straight day.

“Today as we speak they bombed us,” Mr Amum told reporters hours before the talks started. Nevertheless he said he was optimistic talks would produce results.

Sudan has denied attacking the South and the raids could not be confirmed independently. Khartoum has in turn accused the South of alleged cross-border incursions, which it said broke the UN order to halt hostilities.

(AFP)