Bashir and Museveni reiterate their support to South Sudan peace

September 16, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Presidents Omer al-Bashir and Yoweri Museveni reiterated their support to the peace agreement in South Sudan, and vowed to exert the necessary efforts to bring stability to the new nation.

The Ugandan president concluded on Wednesday a two-day visit to Khartoum where the discussions focused on the regional efforts to bring the two warring parties to implement a peace agreement they inked last August.

The Sudanese and Ugandan leaders stressed in joint communiqué issued at the end of the visit that their tow countries are directly affected by the 20-month conflict in South Sudan and vowed to spare no effort to prevent the resumption of hostilities in the neighbouring country.

Bashir and Museveni “expressed their willingness to work together under the umbrella of IGAD and the African Union to maintain peace, security and stability in the region and in the Republic of South Sudan,” says the communiqué, which was inked by foreign ministers of the two countries.

In a closed-door meeting, the two leaders also discussed accusations of support to rebel groups but the two sides avoided to speak about what agreed in the discussions in this respect.

However, the final communiqué said the two countries agreed to enhance security cooperation and to reactivate a joint security committee. They also agreed to promote joint military training and cooperation between the two countries.

Bashir and Museveni further directed the intelligence and security services in the two countries to strengthen their cooperation and coordination in order to overcome the differences between the two sides.

Kampala accuses Sudan of harbouring the Lord Resistance Army of Joseph Kony in a remote area in Darfur region but Khartoum denies the accusation. On the other hand, Sudanese officials recently admitted that Uganda restricted the activities of the rebel groups who used in the past to hold their meetings in Kampala. However they say the rebel groups still have presence there.

Ghandour told reporters that the two presidents discussed the issue of rebel groups
President Museveni gave a lecture about the challenges facing economic development and peace in the Lakes region attended by president al-Bashir.

Before to leave Sudan he extended an invitation to al-Bashir to visit Uganda.

(ST)