EU, Ethiopia confer on Sudan-South Sudan concerns
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
July 31, 2013 (ADDIS ABABA) – The European Union’s special representative for Sudan, Rosalind Marsden, has praised Ethiopia’s efforts towards delivering on a lasting peace deal between Sudan and South Sudan, saying recent efforts by the East African nation had avoided a complete oil shutdown between the two countries.
Marsden made the comments on Wednesday on a visit to the country, where she held talks with Ethiopian foreign minister Tedros Adhanom on current developments between the two Sudans.
The two sides also discussed an Ad-hoc Investigations Mechanism (AIM) which was established recently to probe counter allegations of rebel support by Sudan and South Sudan.
Marsden lauded Ethiopia’s proactive role in the peace process, citing Adhanom’s, recent visit to Khartoum which led to the postponement of an August 7 deadline set by Sudanese government to shut down oil pipelines which South Sudan uses to transport its crude oil to the international market.
Sudan agreed to delay the deadline by at least two weeks after Adhanom, who is also chair of IGAD’s Council of Ministers, and Thabo Mbeki, former South African president and chairman of the AU High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), held talks with Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir in Khartoum last week.
The delay was requested to give the AU-IGAD team time to complete its investigation on the counter accusations that recently escalated tensions between the two former foes.
While welcoming the launch of the investigation, Marsden said “any stop to the flow of oil would serve to put the agreements between both sides into serious jeopardy”.
The Ethiopian minister also briefed the special envoy on the discussions he and Mbeki had in Khartoum and Juba with the presidents of both countries.
Adhanom said that he had assured both Sudans that “the results of an investigation from a neutral international body would carry more weight than the allegations they had been making against each other”.
“[Ethiopian] prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn is also in frequent contact with both president Al-Bashir and [South Sudanese] president [Salva] Kiir and actively encouraging them to maintain regular communication”, he added.
The EU and Ethiopia have vowed to jointly continue working to ensure durable peace in Sudan and South Sudan, as well as throughout the East African region at large.
Khartoum accuses the South Sudan government of supporting the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) rebel alliance, while the South in turn accuses Sudan of backing insurgents in Jonglei state in order to disrupt Juba’s plans for oil exploration in the eastern state.
Ethiopian officials said that counter accusations of rebel support is jeopardising efforts of normalising relations between the two countries, as well as the implementation of a series of agreements signed on 27 September 2012, in Addis Ababa.
It’s believed that the investigation panel will be in a strong position to resolve existing problems between the two East African neighbours.
(ST)