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    February 10, 2012

Sudan, South Sudan Sign Treaty of Non-Aggression

   VOA News

   Sudan and South Sudan have signed a border security agreement that aims
   to defuse growing tensions over oil revenue payments.
   The chief negotiator, former South African President Thabo Mbeki, said
   Sudan and South Sudan signed the non-aggression pact Friday during a
   meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
   Details of the pact were not immediately available.
   When South Sudan seceded in July of last year, it took most of the
   region's oil fields, but the oil from the landlocked country must
   transit Sudan to reach ports.
   Juba last month halted its production after Khartoum started seizing
   southern oil as compensation for what it calls unpaid transit fees.
   Earlier Friday, natural resource monitoring group Global Witness
   expressed concern about escalating tensions between the two sides.
   Sudan wants South Sudan to pay transit fees of more than $30 per
   barrel. The industry standard is closer to $1 per barrel.
   Tensions have also remained high over disagreements about how to
   demarcate the border, and accusations that each side is arming the
   other's rebel groups.
   The dispute has hurt both economies. More than 90 percent of South
   Sudan's revenues are derived from oil exports. Sudan is said to have
   lost more than $7 billion when the South gained independence.
   On Thursday, South Sudan announced an agreement with Ethiopia allowing
   it to build an oil pipeline through Ethiopia to the port of Djibouti.

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP.

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