Sudan’s Northern Army Completes Withdrawal From Southern Sudan

The northern Sudan Armed Forces have completed their withdrawal from the Southern Sudan oil-rich areas in the Unity State ahead of the Wednesday deadline, the Joint Defense Board said on Tuesday.

The board had given the northern troops until Wednesday to leave after they failed to meet a December 31 deadline that was part of a deal that saw southern ex-rebels return to the government of national unity after resigning in October.

According to board chairman Gen. Oyay Deng Ajak and his deputy Gen. Haj Ahmed al-Gaili, the Sudanese presidency adopted a plan in its meeting on January 5 to deploy the Joint Integrated Units in the inner circle of the oil production areas.

Ajak said the northern troops were estimated at over 18,000 around the oil areas of Southern Sudan.

The withdrawal of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement from the unity government in October last year was the worst crisis since a peace deal was signed in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi in 2005.

The Sudanese population had feared the country would return to civil war that claimed an estimated two million people and displaced more than four million in two decades of fighting.

Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which created a southern autonomous government and two separate armies, northern troops should have withdrawn from the Southern Sudan by July 9 last year.

However, according to the United Nations the north had moved only two-thirds of its forces by that date, setting off a protracted war of words that culminated in the south recalling its ministers from the unity government.

Source African Press Agency

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