South Sudan Kiir directs to ensure free movement of Arab herders

November 26, 2007 (JUBA) — Southern Sudan government president has called for the free movement of nomadic herders from northern Sudan to pass peacefully into the south with the onset of the dry season migration, the south’s Presidential Affairs Minister Luka Biong said.

“Because of the crisis, there’s been a build-up of troops along the north-south border,” Biong said. He added that Kiir had told southern states to ensure free access southward for the northerners despite continuing tension.

Biong told Reuters by phone from Khartoum that he was in the Sudanese capital to hand Bashir a letter from Kiir as part of plans for the resumption of talks between the two sides that stuttered to a standstill earlier in the month.

Biong did not specify when Kiir would return to Khartoum but said it would be several days at least because he had to consult the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, which now leads the southern government.

The future of the oil-rich Abyei area in Sudan’s centre was “definitely” still the main sticking point in north-south dialogue, he said. Khartoum was refusing to implement a special protocol for the area because of its oil, Biong said.

The borders of the disputed Abyei region were to be decided by an independent commission. But Khartoum rejected the commission’s report and the Abyei deadlock has continued for two years.

Around 2 million people died during decades of north-south fighting, fuelled by the discovery of oil against a background of ethnic and religious differences.

(Material from Reuters)