KHARTOUM — The United Nations has agreed to a request from Khartoum to
withdraw the Ethiopian contingent of a peacekeeping force from a border region
between Sudan and South Sudan, state media reported.
اضافة اعلان
"Foreign Minister Mariam Al-Mahdi held a virtual meeting with the UN
Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa ... in which they agreed to withdraw the
Ethiopian contingent from the Interim Security Force in Abyei within three
months, at the request of Sudan," Sudanese state news agency SUNA reported
late Monday.
Mahdi pledged to "facilitate a smooth exit of the Ethiopian forces from
Abyei and to receive other forces from contributing countries," SUNA
added.
Ethiopian forces make up the vast majority of the peacekeeping mission in
Abyei (UNISFA) which was deployed under a UN Security Council resolution in
2011, following the independence of South Sudan from Sudan, with a mandate to
protect civilians.
A referendum was to be held so residents could decide which of the two
countries they wanted to join, but long-standing disputes between Khartoum and
Juba over who had the right to vote prevented the referendum from taking place
in 2011.
Out of the mission's 4,190 personnel, 3,158 soldiers and 7 police officers
are Ethiopian, according to the UN.
Last week, Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok visited South Sudanese
capital Juba to push forward peace talks aimed at implementing a historic deal
signed between Khartoum's transitional government and several armed rebel
groups last year.
The deal covers a number of thorny issues from land ownership, reparations,
and compensation to wealth and power-sharing, as well as the return of refugees
and internally displaced people.
But relations between Khartoum and Addis Ababa have deteriorated in recent
months due to a territorial conflict over the Fashaga region, where Ethiopian
farmers cultivate fertile land claimed by
Sudan.
The Sudanese army redeployed its forces to the region in November.
Sudan, along with Egypt, is also locked in a bitter dispute over Ethiopia's
mega-dam on the Blue Nile.
Both downstream countries, dependent on the river for most of their water,
see the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam as an existential threat.
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