Sudan troops out of south this year – president
November 5, 2007 (BUJUMBURA) — Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Monday government troops remaining in the oil-rich and semi-autonomous south would quit the region before the end of the year.
The presence of soldiers from the northern Khartoum government in southern oil fields prompted the former Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) to pull out of the northern government last month.
The south’s pullout marked the worst crisis in north-south relations since a 2005 peace deal to end what had been Africa’s longest-running civil war.
“Eight-five percent of nothern troops have already left the southern areas … (the rest) will leave by the end of December as agreed in the peace deal with the SPLM,” Bashir told reporters at the end of a three-day visit to Burundi.
Bashir called on the southern army to follow suit, saying only 7 percent of former SPLM fighters have moved out of the nothern region. Last week, the southern army told Khartoum to withdraw its troops before December 15.
Khartoum was originally to have had its troops out of the south by July 9.
The Sudanese army says only 3,600 northern soldiers are still in southern areas. South Sudan President Salva Kiir put the number at 17,000 last month.
BURUNDI
Besides the redeployment of northern troops, southern officials have demanded that Khartoum resolve the status of the oil-rich Abyei region and fully fund a much-delayed national census before they rejoin government.
Oil, ethnicity, religion and ideology fuelled over two decades of north-south civil war in Sudan, which is separate from the current conflict in Darfur.
Sudan’s two largest oil fields are in the land-locked south while its refineries and pipelines are in the north.
Bashir also signed a trade deal with Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza to provide fuel and oil products to the landlocked central African nation.
Bashir said he expected Sudanese traders to buy Burundi’s main exports — tea and coffee.
“As Sudan bought a lot of tea from east Africa, there is no doubt that Sudan traders will come and buy Burundi’s tea and coffee in great quantities,” Bashir said.
(Reuters)