Sudan leaders reach peace deal over disputed Abyei region

Ex-South African president Thabo Mbeki helps secure agreement which will allow Ethiopian peacekeeping force role Leaders from north and south Sudan signed an agreement in Ethiopia on Monday to demilitarise the disputed central region of Abyei and allow an Ethiopian peacekeeping force to move in. The former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who is helping to lead peace talks, said the agreement provided for the full demilitarisation of the fertile region near oilfields that both north and south claim as their own. Troops from northern Sudan moved into the region last month, resulting in the exodus of tens of thousands of people aligned with the south. “The Sudan armed forces will pull out and will be deployed outside Abyei,” said Mbeki. The agreement comes three weeks before the south is set to secede from the north and create the world’s newest country. Heavy violence has broken out along the north-south border in the runup to the south’s independence declaration. The United Nations security council will decide at a meeting in New York what the size of the Ethiopian force will be and what action it will be mandated to take. Shortly after the agreement was reached, Mbeki told the UN in a video conference that both parties wanted the UN to move quickly to see the agreement implemented. Mbeki said urgent action would allow the displaced people of Abyei to return after military forces left, allowing the humanitarian situation to be addressed. Mbeki said: “It will also bring to an end this threat of violence, and actual violence in the area, so we are really hoping that [the] security council will look at this agreement as early as possible and take all the necessary decisions so that the various provisions in the agreement can be implemented.” Tens of thousands of people fled Abyei after northern troops moved in last month. More recently, tens of thousands of people aligned with the south have fled attacks by the northern military in the state of South Kordofan. Talks on the violence in that region are set to begin on Tuesday. The civil war in Sudan lasted decades and resulted in about two million deaths. It ended with a 2005 peace deal that gave the south the right to hold a self-determination vote. The region voted overwhelmingly in January to secede, but the north and south have yet to work out all the details. Pagan Amam, the leader of the southern delegation, said the south was happy with the agreement, particularly the part calling for the withdrawal of northern forces from Abyei. Sudan Africa Ethiopia Thabo Mbeki guardian.co.uk

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