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North, South Sudan Sign Border Security Agreement

01 June 2011 04:02 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The African Union says north and south Sudan have agreed to create a demilitarized border zone amid tensions over which side controls key border regions, APA reports quoting voanews.com website.

The AU said in a statement Tuesday the two sides agreed after meeting in Ethiopia to have joint patrols stretching along their 2200-kilometer-long north-south border.

An AU adviser says the demilitarized zone will be established by July 9, the day south Sudan is due to declare independence from the north.

At the same time Tuesday, Sudan informed the United Nations in New York that it wants the U.N. peacekeeping force on its southern border to leave its territory when south Sudan becomes independent.

Sudan’s U.N. ambassador told the Security Council that after July 9, Khartoum does not see the need for the more than 10,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force to remain.

North Sudanese forces seized control of the contested and oil-rich Abyei region earlier this month, and has rejected calls from the United States, United Nations and south Sudan to remove its troops.

Tension in Sudan rose again Saturday when the north demanded the south withdraw its troops from two border states, Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

Ethiopia says it would consider sending peacekeepers to help monitor the volatile border area if both sides request it. South Sudan’s U.N. envoy welcomed the proposal Tuesday, while Khartoum’s ambassador was non-committal, saying his government is contemplating many such initiatives.

North and South Sudan fought a 21-year civil war that ended in 2005. The south voted to split from the north in a January referendum.