Relief as tension between Juba, Khartoum ends

The East Africa region has sighed with relief in the wake of easing of tensions between Khartoum and Juba as the two countries yesterday signalled their willingness to attend a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in early April to resolve their differences.Kenya has sent Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka to both Juba and Khartoum to de-escalate the hostilities and to prevent a new eruption of violence.“While the exact situation on the ground still needs to be confirmed, at the moment the situation appears to be de-escalating,” said the Secretary-General’s deputy spokesperson, Eduardo del Buey, in a statement seen by The New Times.Both the East African Community and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development have actively engaged on the issue over recent days. There had been growing concerns over the situation in the wake of reports of armed clashes around the two countries’ shared border region. On Tuesday, the Security Council expressed concern that a confrontation threatened reigniting conflict between the two. It called on the governments to exercise maximum restraint and to peacefully address the issues that have fuelled mistrust between them, including differences over oil, violence in the border region, citizenship and the dispute over the Abyei area. The African Union High-level Implementation Panel and other international partners have also had intensive engagement with the parties. “The Government of South Sudan is committed to withdraw its forces to its previous positions. The Government of Sudan has agreed to attend a meeting of the Joint Political and Security Mechanism in Addis Ababa, and stop the bombing if the South Sudan People’s Liberation Army withdrew,” said the Statement.The region is pushing for an April 3 meeting between the two heads of state, despite reports that Sudan’s President Omar El Bashir was reluctant to attend. It is understood that the prospect of sending more peace keepers to the region is on the cards. Rwanda has some troops in Darfur who have won international accolades for the professional manner in which they have conducted themselves.

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Relief as tension between Juba, Khartoum ends