Sudan, South Sudan to take steps to lower oil tension
CAIRO | Mon Jun 17, 2013 2:27pm EDT
(Reuters) - Sudan and South Sudan are prepared to take steps, brokered by
the African Union, to try to avert an oil crisis between them amid
accusations from both sides that the other is supporting insurgencies in
their territories.
Sudan officially informed South Sudan on Tuesday that it would stop allowing
its neighbor to export crude through its territory within two months unless
Juba gave up support for insurgents operating across their shared border.
In turn, Juba accuses Khartoum of backing rebels on its territory, one of
several conflicts stemming from the messy split in 2011 of what was once
Africa's largest country. Both sides deny supporting the rebels.
The oil stoppage would cut off the crude and transit fees that make up both
countries' main source of foreign income.
The dispute over rebel support has been rumbling for months, but the latest
threat effectively tears up an agreement brokered by the African Union in
March over transit fees that had shut the pipelines for 16 months.
The African Union suggested a continuation of a demilitarized zone between
two countries and setting up a mechanism to examine accusations of support
for the insurgencies by both parties, Abubakar El-Saddiq, a spokesman for
Sudan's Foreign Ministry, said.
"Sudan has officially informed the esteemed committee for the African Union
... about its acceptance of the committee's suggestions in order to avoid an
oil crisis between both countries," Saddiq said.
Part of the original AU-mediated agreement was to set up a buffer zone
monitored by U.N. peacekeepers. Both sides have accused the other of
violating the agreement.
South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in 2011 under a peace deal that ended
decades of civil war fuelled by ethnicity and oil, has also accepted the
AU's proposals.
"Juba is committed to the proposed discussions through the African Union,"
Barnaba Marial Benjamin, spokesman for the government of South Sudan, said.
The row threatens to hit supplies to Asian buyers such as
<
http://www.reuters.com/places/china> China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC),
India's ONCG Videsh and Malaysia's Petronas, which run the oilfields in both
countries.
Diplomats doubt Sudan will actually close the two cross-border export
pipelines because its
<
http://www.reuters.com/finance/economy?lc=int_mb_1001> economy has been
suffering without South Sudan's pipeline fees.
Each side is due to present their information to the African Union's
committee from June 20-25. It will present its results on July 25.
(Reporting by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Alison Williams)
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Received on Mon Jun 17 2013 - 22:06:53 EDT