Sudan – South Sudan Negotiations Resume
By MISNA
Economic issues, primarily the division of oil revenues, are expected to dominate today in Addis Ababa the negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan on the issues left unresolved since independence in Juba, said the minister and presidential adviser Mohamed Abdul-Gadir.
According to the Sudanese representative, quoted by the official press “SUNA” during talks mediated by the African Union, South Sudan will be asked to pay six billion dollars in arrears to the use of pipelines oriented toward the Red Sea.
The division of Sudan in July last year has necessitated a new compromise on oil revenues after the expiry of the peace accords of 2005 which provided for a division on an equal basis.
The oil is mostly concentrated in the southern oil fields, but it can only be sold and delivered to international markets via the pipelines linking the oil to the north.
Khartoum is seeking payment of a transit fee of USD35 per barrel, while Juba is offering 74 cents with the addition of an initial allocation of two and a half billion dollars.
The tensions between the ‘Sudans’ grew over the past weekend, with Khartoum announcing that it had taken and sold 650,000 barrels from the south. In addition to oil, in the Ethiopian capital until next Monday, there will be a discussion over foreign debt and trade agreements.
A key issue on a humanitarian level risks being ignored, in a period characterized by a series of other armed clashes. The enduring conflict along the borders of two countries: the legal status of some 700,000 South Sudanese migrants, who, in the absence of an agreement, in April could be expelled from Khartoum and other northern regions where they have worked and lived or years.
