Emergency meeting between Sudan and South Sudan on Sunday

The African Union has invited Sudan and South Sudan to hold emergency talks this coming Sunday in Addis Ababa to iron out outstanding issues from the 2012 signed joint cooperation agreement, the Sudan Media Centre reported.

Ambassador Mahmoud Khan, communications director of the African Union to Khartoum, confirmed the two sides had agreed to meet the African Union’s High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) on Sunday in Ethiopia. He said the Sudanese delegation would be headed by the Foreign Secretary, Ibrahim Ghandour, and Sudan’s Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Emad Al-Din Adawi, while the South Sudan delegation would be led by Mikel Makou, the minister of information, General Paul Malong Awan, chief of staff for the National Army.

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Khan explained that the meeting would discuss issues relating to an agreement signed to end a dispute over oil production along with tackling a number of other concerns following the succession of Juba from Khartoum in 2011. The agreement signed in September 2012 comprised a general co-operation agreement and eight specific protocols on oil, security arrangements and mobility for citizens of both countries, post service benefits for civil servants and pensioners, trade, banking, assets, debt and cultural property, as well as resolved issues relating to the demarcation of the border.

Previous attempts to stage meetings to resolve outstanding matters have been delayed a number of times at the request of the South Sudanese government.