AU Pushes for Sudan Talks - Wall Street Journal

By NICHOLAS BARIYO

KAMPALA, Uganda—The African Union has mounted pressure on oil-producing Sudan and South Sudan as it seeks to bring the two back to the negotiating table amid hostilities along their oil-rich border.

Former South African President and African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki traveled to the South Sudanese capital, Juba, on Sunday for crunch talks with President Salva Kiir as he pushes for the resumption of negotiations, suspended in March following a spate of armed confrontations in oil regions that straddle the two nations' 1,800-kilometer border, diplomats said Sunday.

Mr. Mbeki, who has been mediating between the two since South Sudan's secession last summer, held talks with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Saturday. After the meeting, Mr. Bashir told Mr. Mbeki that Khartoum is committed to a lasting peace but urged South Sudan to end its support for rebels in Sudan's border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, the state news agency SUNA reported.

Since last year, the Sudanese army has been battling rebels in the two states which it says are backed by South Sudan. Both sides accuse each other of backing proxy rebel groups; both deny the accusations.

The two nations failed to implement a U.N. Security Council resolution requiring them to resume talks by May 16 or face sanctions. Diplomats have since stepped up efforts to push the two back to negotiations to avoid sanctions.

Analysts say that sanctions could stretch the two nations' fragile economies, which are struggling to come to terms with the aftershocks of the closedown of the 350,000 barrels of oil-a-day in the South as well as the destruction of the 60,000 barrels-a-day Heglig oil field in South Kordofan last month.

Since the secession of the south, the two countries have been at odds over the precise position of their oil-rich border as well as over how much the south should pay to use pipelines and ports located in the north. The spat boiled up in January, prompting South Sudan to halt its oil shipments though the north.

Last week, South Sudan said that Sudanese war planes had bombed its two oil-producing states more than 60 times since March. The newly independent nation is set to bolster its air defenses through the acquisition of anti-air craft missiles in the next few weeks, according to South Sudan army spokesman Col. Philip Auger.

South Sudan has complied with most of the U.N.'s resolutions, including the withdrawal of its forces from the disputed oil regions of Heglic and Abeyi.

However, Sudan is yet to withdraw from Abeyi and has indicated that it won't allow the south to export any oil through its territory unless the two agree on the restoration of security in its border regions.