Sudan demanded Kiir to close business offices held by rebel groups – official
May 23, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan dismissed on Thursday statements by president Salav Kiir saying that Khartoum had asked him to expel all the Sudanese traders working in Juba.
On 17 May, Sudanese foreign minister Ali Karti flaked by the director of intelligence and security services Mohamed Atta met president Kiir in Juba to hand him a message from his counterpart Omer Al-Bashir.
On Monday, the South Sudanese president said Khartoum asked him to expel all the Sudanese traders working in Juba. He pointed out that there is no progress in the normalization process with Sudan ,adding that the latter continues to hold Juba responsible of its internal conflicts.
The Undersecretary of the Sudanese foreign ministry Rahmatallah Mohamed Osman on Thursday told foreign ambassadors in Khartoum that Karti asked only to close the business offices held by rebel groups in Juba.
He further said this offices import vehicles and supplies for the rebels, stressing they operate with the knowledge of the South Sudanese authorities.
“The minister demanded to not allow these offices to provide the rebels with vehicles they use to attack Sudanese towns and villages”, Osman stressed..
A joint political and security mechanism agreed recently to discuss complaints related to rebel issues.
In Khartoum the defence minster Abdel-Rahim Hussein on Thursday told the council of ministers that the rebel groups received recently important foreign support to use it in their recent attacks in South and North Kordofan.
He added that rebel attacks aim to consolidate their presence in Kordofan and Darfur and and to work from these regions to weaken the Sudanese army before to bring down the regime.
(ST)