Sudan, S Sudan keen on resolving disputes

Form joint committees for finance and border security

President Omar al-Bashir and his southern counterpart Salva Kiir Mayardit set up joint committees in departments of finance and border security, to conclude the latter’s official visit to Sudan.In the first official visit since South Sudan’s independence from the North in July this year, the two nations vowed to resolve outstanding disputes. “We have agreed to have committees and have given them deadlines to reach a solution on all the pending issues,” the Sudanese president said in a press conference.

Meanwhile, the Southern president said, “My brother al-Bashir and I are committed to ensure that none of these issues will take us back to war. There might be some elements on both sides that would like to take us back… to war. But I repeat, we left the war station behind in 2005.”

South Sudan gained independence from the North on July 9, 2011. Conflict has broken out in the Sudan’s southern states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.