The African Union has demanded for a complete cessation of all hostilities and the immediate resumption of the AUHIP-led negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan.
The Chairperson of Commission of the African Union (AU), Jean Ping instructed Sudan and south Sudan to end the senseless fighting and fully implement the security commitments they have entered into, and resume, under the auspices of the AU High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), the negotiations on their post secession relations.
He noted, “Recourse to force will never bring about a lasting solution to the issues at hand. The peoples of Sudan and South Sudan need to leave in peace with one another and to cooperate, as their destinies are intertwined.”
Both Parties need to exercise the much needed statesmanship and to be driven by a vision that takes into account the long term interests of their countries and peoples, as well as by their responsibility towards the region, the rest of Africa and the larger international community.
The Chairperson of the Commission reiterates AU’s request for Sudan and South Sudan to immediately implement the security agreements that they have reached under the facilitation of the AUHIP, with the support of IGAD and the United Nations, particularly the Decision of the Joint Political and Security Mechanism (JPSM) of 18 September 2011, which, inter alia, established the Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mission (JBVMM).
It should be noted that UN Security resolution 2024(2011) of 14 December 2011 has mandated the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) to support the JBVMM.
The Chairperson of the Commission stresses the need for both Parties to refrain from inflammatory statements which not only complicate the current and delicate situation, but also undermine the prospects for brotherly relations between the two states and their peoples.
Such statements run contrary to the principles on the basis of which the two countries agreed to resolve the post-secession issues.
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