KHARTOUM (AFP) – North and south Sudan agreed Wednesday to set up a demilitarised buffer zone along their border days before the country splits, the African Union said, but no truce has yet been reached in South Kordofan.
Wednesday's accord, signed in Addis Ababa and overseen by the chief African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki, requires both sides to withdraw their forces 10 kilometres (six miles) on either side of the border before the formal independence of the south on July 9, an AU statement read.
"The agreement ... is another building block for ensuring stability and unhindered development along the common border between north and south Sudan," the statement said.
Unarmed observers from both sides will work with UN observers to make sure the agreement is observed, and scattered checkpoints will be manned by Ethiopian peacekeepers.
This follows a recent agreement for the north to pull its troops out of the contested Abyei region, and a deal signed on Tuesday in which the two sides pledged to resolve their differences in the northern state of South Kordofan, where government forces are battling pro-south militia.
But Nafie Ali Nafie, Sudan's top presidential adviser and a signatory to Tuesday's framework accord, told reporters in Khartoum on his return from negotiations in Ethiopia that no ceasefire has been agreed.
"We didn't agree on stopping the hostilities in South Kordofan. But we have created a joint military committee that is going to meet in Addis Ababa next week," he said.
The conflict in Sudan's central border region has dramatically escalated tensions between north and south in the run-up to southern independence.
Although reliable casualty figures are hard to obtain because of heavy restrictions on the movement of UN agencies and non-governmental organisations, diplomats say the numbers could run into the hundreds.
Nafie said that despite the agreement to establish a demilitarised buffer zone, the two parties have yet to finalise the demarcation of the border itself, which is more than 2,000 kilometres long and remains disputed in a number of places.
On Monday, the UN Security Council ordered a 4,200-strong Ethiopian peacekeeping force to Abyei to monitor the withdrawal of northern troops who occupied the disputed border region on May 21.
On the sensitive issue of citizenship after the country divides, Nafie said the two sides agreed to a nine-month transitional period to allow southerners living in the north and northerners in the south "to settle their situations."
"For the the southerners that want to work in the private sector in the north, they will have to get permission and residency permits," he added.
Millions of southerners fled to Khartoum during the devastating 22-year civil war between the northern government and ex-southern rebel army the SPLA that ended in 2005.
While many have returned to the south since last year, hundreds of thousands remain in the north, with its better job opportunities, but there have been growing concerns about their citizenship and employment rights.
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