"After discussion by the MPs, the general feeling of the assembly is to agree to those deals," parliament speaker Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir told deputies just before the vote.
Roughly half of the chamber's 350 MPs were present for the ballot, and only two of them voted against the agreements.
The late-September deals, signed by Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to
ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
and his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir, came after the neighbors fought along their undemarcated frontier in March and April, sparking fears of wider war.
A U.N. Security Council resolution ordered a ceasefire and the settlement of crucial unresolved issues, under 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...
mediation.
"We received a positive reaction from the international community expecting our signature on the agreement, and they believe we are a responsible state that is looking out for the benefits of its people," Foreign Minister Ali Karti told politicians.
He criticized Sudanese press criticism of the deals.
The South's government halted oil production in January after accusing Khartoum of theft in a long-running dispute over how much the impoverished government in Juba should pay for sending its oil through northern infrastructure for export.