Khartoum-Juba talks on rebel support end without agreement: sources

May 14, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – A joint meeting that took place yesterday in Khartoum between military intelligence teams from north and south Sudan has failed to reach an agreement on the thorny issue of harboring and supporting rebel groups in both countries.

Last March, Khartoum and Juba agreed to form a joint committee mandated with addressing concerns and complaints which may constitute a violation to the MOU on Non-Aggression and Cooperation of 14th February 2012, as well as the Mutual Cooperation Agreement of 27th September 2012.

Sources with knowledge of the talks told Sudan Tribune that the two-day meetings in Khartoum had reached an impasse and said he expects the African Union (AU) mediation team to intervene in order to salvage the cooperation agreements signed last year which came into force following March’s implementation matrix deal.

However, an official at the Joint Political and Security Committee (JPSC) declared that this week’s meetings managed to reach solutions on security arrangements as well as rebel support issue.

The JPSC secretary, Moiz Farouq, said at media forum following the meetings that JPSC will continue talks on security arrangements and will likely hold its next meeting in Juba next Wednesday.

In the same context, South Sudan’s military intelligence chief expressed resentment over allegations made by Khartoum this week accusing Juba of supporting the rebel Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) recent attack in Kordofan and said that the Sudanese government does not have evidence to support its claims.

The Southern official further stressed that his country intends to move forward with the cooperation agreements nut cautioned that lack of trust from Sudan does not help both sides arrive at fundamental solutions to the rebel harboring.

Sudan constantly accuses South Sudan of supporting rebels fighting in two states that border South Sudan. Juba denies supporting the rebels, known as Sudan People Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N), and in turn accuses Khartoum of backing insurgents on its territory.

The National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) in Khartoum issued a statement detailing allegations that Juba provided SRF rebels with weapons, ammunition, vehicles, housing and medical care.

This, according to Juba, helped the rebels in last month’s brief occupation on North Kordofan’s second largest town of Um Rawaba which was considered an alarming development in the dynamics of the conflict which was largely restricted to Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

The Sudanese army is now attempting to retake Abu-Kershola district in South Kordofan which has fallen into rebel hands around the same time of Um Rawaba’s attack. But the army is reportedly having difficulty expelling the rebels for unknown reasons.

Today Khartoum governor Abdel-Rahman al-Khidir revealed that the army along with the Popular Defense Forces (PDF) entered Abu-Kershola but was forced to withdraw to “preserve lives and equipments”.

(ST)