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Sudan Tribune

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Senior S. Sudanese officials to Khartoum next June for security talks

May 24, 2016 (JUBA)- South Sudanese government announced Tuesday that a high level delegation will travel to Khartoum for bilateral talks on the implementation of security arrangements the two neighbouring countries signed since four years.

South Sudan's defence minister Kuol Manyang Juuk shakes hands with his Sudanese counterpart Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Ouf while AUHIP member Abdulsalam Abubakar applauds,  after the signing of an agreement to operationalize the buffer zone between the two countries on 14 October 2015 (Courtesy photo by the AUHIP).
South Sudan’s defence minister Kuol Manyang Juuk shakes hands with his Sudanese counterpart Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Ouf while AUHIP member Abdulsalam Abubakar applauds, after the signing of an agreement to operationalize the buffer zone between the two countries on 14 October 2015 (Courtesy photo by the AUHIP).
According to acting spokesperson of South Sudan foreign affairs and international cooperation Ministry, Thomas Kenneth, The delegation, will be led by Defence Minister, Kuol Manyang Juuk.

The purpose of the mission of the delegation, according to Kenneth, will be to meet with their counterparts in the Sudanese government to hold discussions on security matters, specifically issues to security arrangement under the 2012 cooperation agreement which the two countries had signed.

Other members of the delegation will include the minister of interior, Alfred Lado Gore and foreign affairs and international cooperation Minister Deng Alor Kuol.

The chief of General Staff of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the official army of South Sudan, Paul Malong Awan, will also go on the trip.

The latter had rejected in the past the operationalization of the buffer zone because it includes the disputed area of Mile 14, despite the assurances of the mediation that the measure will not prejudge any final demarcation of the 1,800-km border.

The officials were supposed to have travelled to the Sudanese on Monday 23 May but decided to push the meeting to June 7th as the day on which they would be able to travel to Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

The cause of the delay remains unclear and no official statements were released to the public.

Sudan recently closed again the border with South Sudan and renewed accusations that Juba continues to support the Sudanese armed groups.
(ST)

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