Sudan’s President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir on July 11 said that the disputed Abyei border region could be a source of conflict with newly independent South Sudan if agreements are not respected. Bashir said he wanted UN peacekeepers to leave but welcomed a US-drafted resolution, unanimously approved by the UN Security Council last month, to deploy 4,200 Ethiopian troops to Abyei for six months. “The Ethiopians have a mandate to keep peace in the zone, so we welcome the Ethiopian troops,” he said. “Both of us welcome them, because they are capable of doing their job, unlike the current troops who have failed to keep peace in this zone.”
South Sudan seceded from the north on July 9 but the countries have yet to agree on who owns Abyei, stirring fears of renewed conflict. “We will redeploy our troops outside Abyei as soon as the Ethiopians arrive,” Bashir said. North and south are yet to agree on important issues, including the line of the border, the ownership of Abyei and how they will handle oil revenues, the lifeblood of both economies.