Sudan and South talks deadlocked

on 19/01/2013 13:17:25

South Sudan and Sudan have failed to reach an agreement on security arrangements and oil exports after several days of talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, officials said today.

The two sides were trying to negotiate the implementation of a safe demilitarised border zone, which called on both Juba and Khartoum to withdraw their armies at least six miles (10km) from the contested border region.

South Sudan's negotiating team said in a statement today that a key sticking point has been the demilitarisation of a contested 14-mile (22.5km) strip of land bordering Sudan's Darfur and South Sudan's northern Bahr el Ghazal states.

South Sudan broke away from Sudan in 2011 after an independence vote under a 2005 peace treaty which ended decades of war, but disputes remain over their common border and sharing of oil revenues.