Khartoum and Juba to discuss opening border crossings

April 18, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Joint Political and Security Mechanism (JPSM) has reportedly formulated a proposal regarding opening border crossings that will be discussed next week in Ethiopia between the delegations of north and south Sudan.

According to the pro-government Sudanese Media Center (SMC) website, Khartoum’s delegation will travel to Addis Ababa in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

The report stated that the JPSM Secretariat will hold a meeting on the same day in preparation for the committee meeting with African Union (AU) mediation team headed by Thabo Mbeki on April 22nd.

The upcoming meeting will also discuss halting support to rebels and verifying withdrawal from demilitarized zones.

Several months of bilateral talks led to a meeting in Addis Ababa last month at which both sides struck agreement on resuming oil flows and on several other pacts, including one for a demilitarized border buffer zone.

Both nations withdrew troops from border areas as agreed in an African Union-brokered deal in September. But they took until March to set up the demilitarized border zone, due to mistrust.

(ST)