South Sudanese President Salva Kiir met his Sudanese counterpart Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan on Thursday to discuss ways to stabilize political, economic and security cooperation between the two countries.
The two leaders met in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, where they reiterated their commitment to guarantee freedom of movement, residence, acquisition of property and employment for all citizens of their respective countries, Mayen Dut Wol, undersecretary of the Ministry of International Foreign Relations and International Cooperation, he told reporters.
Wol said President Kiir and Al-Burhan, chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council, deliberated on key issues ranging from the implementation of the 2012 cooperation agreement to trade and security along the border corridors between the two neighboring countries.
“The security of Sudan and South Sudan is our priority as the two countries are closely intertwined and instability or insecurity within a country can cross borders,” the leaders said in a joint statement.
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The two leaders also stressed the importance of maintaining stability and security along their common border. They also agreed to establish a joint security force to prevent the infiltration of illegal weapons.
Border regions – Upper Nile in South Sudan and Darfur in Sudan, as well as disputed Abyei – are often rocked by deadly inter-communal conflicts that spill over across borders.
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The two countries also agreed to discuss other relevant agreements, especially the mechanisms to speed up the implementation of the recently extended peace roadmap.
Read: Juba and Khartoum agree to draw Abyei border
President Kiir and his First Vice President Riek Machar, and other parties to the revitalized 2018 peace deal agreed in August 2022 to extend the transition period, which was due to expire in December 2023. The transition period will now expire in 2025, but the The parties must hold elections in February 2024.
Dafallah Al-Haj Ali, Sudan’s undersecretary at the Foreign Ministry, said the meeting focused on ways to speed up the implementation of peace accords, security issues and bilateral cooperation.
In 2020, the South Sudanese government helped broker peace between Sudan’s transitional government led by Al-Burhan and various armed opposition groups in Juba.
After years of civil war, South Sudan seceded from its northern neighbor in 2011. However, the status of Abyei, the disputed oil-rich region on the border between the two countries, has yet to be determined.
In September 2012, Sudan and South Sudan signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa under the auspices of the African Union. The agreement included a package of understandings related to security, the status of citizens, border and economic issues, and others related to oil and trade.
