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Sudan Army Says Will Pull Out of Contested Abyei
[An Nahar] Sudan's army will begin pulling out of the contested region of Abyei from Tuesday, as demanded by the United Nations...a formerly good idea gone bad... , the army front man said. "We will start tomorrow and we will invite journalists to see this redeployment," Sawarmi Khaled Saad said in a statement to news hounds. The pullout, ending a year-long occupation, will begin on the same day negotiators from Sudan and South Sudan are to meet in the Æthiopian capital Addis Ababa to resume talks led by African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... mediator Thabo Mbeki ...former president of South Africa, succeeding Nelson Mandela. He now pops up periodically as a mediator when something catches fire in Africa... Saad said Mbeki asked Khartoum to withdraw its forces from the area. "Sudan decided to redeploy the troops out of Abyei area to offer a good environment for the talks," he said, adding that Khartoum requested a "guarantee" that the area is part of its territory. After Sudan and South Sudan came to the brink of all-out war in April, the U.N. Security Council called on them to cease hostilities along their disputed border and to resume talks on a number of issues including the status of Abyei. Posted by: Fred 2012-05-29 |
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