JUBA/KHARTOUM: Sudan and South Sudan yesterday accused each other of incursions into disputed border areas, in a new setback to plans to secure their volatile boundary and resume cross-border oil flows. The accusations come a day after Sudan’s President Omar Hassan Al Bashir said he was willing to meet his South Sudan counterpart Salva Kiir to try to move forward stalled talks to set up a demilitarised border zone.
The African neighbours agreed to end hostilities in September and to resume oil exports from South Sudan via the north after coming close to war in April, the worst violence since the South’s secession last year. But neither has moved back its army from the border, a step both say is needed to resume oil exports from the landlocked South through the north. Both economies depend on oil. South Sudan’s army spokesman Philip Aguer said Sudanese war planes had bombed the area of Kiir Adem, which lies inside a 14 mile-wide (22.5 km) strip of land known as the Mile 14 area and claimed by both countries.Reuters
