March 18, 2019 (KHARTOUM) - The Joint Border Commission (JBC) between Sudan and South Sudan has held its eights meeting in Addis Ababa.
- Sudanese military personnel inspect the belongings of South Sudanese on the Sudanese border on 18 April 2014 (Photo: Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)
Head of Sudan’s border commission Muaz Tango said the two sides agreed to adopt the report of the joint border technical committee regarding the areas agreed.
According to Tango, the JBC has directed the joint committee to prepare a comprehensive report about the border demarcation in order to discuss it during the next meeting.
He added the meeting stressed the need to speed up the completion of the border planning to make the borderline a point for convergence in order to strengthen popular, social and economic ties between the two countries.
Claimed and disputed areas of Sudan and South Sudan border include Abyei, 14-Mile area, Joudat Al-Fakhar, Jebel al-Migainais, Kaka, and Kafia Kingi enclave (Hofrat al-Nahas).
Since South Sudan’s independence, the agreed border between the two countries is not yet demarcated (marked on the ground). Also, talks between the two sides continue to delimit the remaining 20% disputed boundary.
In September 2012, both Sudan and South Sudan signed a series of cooperation agreements, which covered oil, citizenship rights, security issues, banking, border trade among others.
In March 2013, the two countries signed an implementation matrix for these cooperation agreements. However, the execution of the agreements didn’t go according to the plan.
South Sudan seceded from Sudan on July 9th, 2011 following a referendum on whether the semi-autonomous region should remain a part of the country or become independent. 99% of the southern voters chose independence.
Relations between the two nations soured after South Sudan’s independence following a series of disputes over a number of issues.
