Succumbing to International Pressure, South Sudan to Withdraw its Troops from the Disputed Oil Town of Heglig
South Sudan ‘to withdraw troops’ from Heglig oil field
Both Sudan and the South are reliant on their oil revenues, which account for 98% of South Sudan’s budget. But the two countries cannot agree how to divide the oil wealth of the former united state. Some 75% of the oil lies in the South but all the pipelines run north. It is feared that disputes over oil could lead the two neighbours to return to war.
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has ordered the withdrawal of his troops from the Heglig oil field across the border in Sudan.
South Sudanese forces captured the oil field last week, accusing Khartoum of using it as a base to launch attacks.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has described the occupation as illegal and also called on Sudan to stop bombing the South.
Khartoum claimed later on Friday that Sudanese forces had retaken the main town in Heglig after “a fierce battle”.
“Sudan’s armed forces… entered Heglig today at 14:20 (11:20 GMT),” Sudanese Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohammed Hussein announced on state TV.
South Sudan has so far made no public comments on Khartoum’s claim.
The escalating fighting and rhetoric between the two sides over the past week has led to fears of all-out war.
South Sudan seceded last July following a 2005 peace deal that ended a brutal two-decade civil war in which more than 1.5 million people died.
On Thursday, South Sudan issued a statement saying it was not interested in war with its northern neighbour and that it would only withdraw from Heglig if the UN deployed monitors there.
Main disputes between Sudans
- Transit fees the South should pay Sudan to use its oil pipelines
- Demarcating the border
- Both sides claim Abyei
- The rights of each other’s citizens now in a foreign country – there are estimated to be 500,000 southerners in Sudan and 80,000 Sudanese in the South
- Each accuses the other of supporting rebel groups on its territory
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir had earlier threatened to bring down the government in Juba following the loss of Heglig, which provided more than half of Sudan’s oil.
‘LRA intelligence’South Sudan’s withdrawal has been ordered to create the environment for talks with Khartoum, Reuters news agency reports.
“An orderly withdrawal will commence immediately and shall be completed within three days,” AFP news agency quotes a presidential statement as saying.
Mr Kiir said the South still believed that Heglig was a part of South Sudan and that its final status should be determined by international arbitration, Associated Press reported.
Heglig is internationally accepted to be part of Sudanese territory – although the precise border is yet to be demarcated.
In the latest of intense diplomatic efforts to prevent a wider conflict, US special envoy Princeton Lyman visited Khartoum on Thursday.
The regional body Igad, which mediated the 2005 peace deal, expressed “grave concern about the escalating conflict” and said it would “extend all possible assistance to maintain peace and stability”.
“We will be involved having suffered a proxy war by Khartoum” Gen Aronda NyakairimaUganda’s military chief
Uganda, a close ally of South Sudan, also indicated it might become involved if the fighting became a full-scale war.
“We will not sit by and do nothing,” Ugandan military chief Gen Aronda Nyakairima was quoted by Uganda’s private Daily Monitor newspaper as saying.
A Ugandan army spokesman told the BBC that diplomacy would be exhausted before any military action was ever considered.
During Sudan’s civil conflict, Uganda accused the Khartoum government of supporting the Lord’s Resistance Army, which was fighting in northern Uganda.
Uganda backed the South Sudanese rebels during the civil war and now has extensive economic interests in the newly independent country.
The LRA, led by Joseph Kony, who has been subject of a recent viral online campaign highlighting his activities, now roam the jungles of Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“We will be involved having suffered a proxy war by Khartoum,” Gen Nyakairima told the Daily Monitor.
“Our people in northern Uganda suffered and intelligence information also indicates that the LRA, who have an estimated 200 guns, are again in contact with Khartoum,” he said.
Both Sudan and the South are reliant on their oil revenues, which account for 98% of South Sudan’s budget. But the two countries cannot agree how to divide the oil wealth of the former united state. Some 75% of the oil lies in the South but all the pipelines run north. It is feared that disputes over oil could lead the two neighbours to return to war.
South Sudan to pull out of oil town, easing crisis
Responding to international pressure, South Sudan announced on Friday it will withdraw its troops from the disputed oil town its forces took over last week.
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Responding to international pressure, South Sudan announced Friday it will withdraw its troops from the disputed oil town its forces took over last week, pulling back from offensive military action that pushed the south closer to all-out war with its northern neighbor, Sudan.
The announcement from President Salva Kiir said the south still believes that the town of Heglig is a part of South Sudan. Kiir said he expects its final status to be determined by international arbitration.
South Sudanese troops moved into and took over Heglig last week, sparking condemnation from the U.N., U.S.and Britain and the threat of sanctions.
The offensive sent Sudanese troops fleeing, and Sudan’s president greatly increased threatening war rhetoric toward the south in the last few days.
South Sudan broke away from Sudan last year after an independence vote, the culmination of a 2005 peace treaty that ended decades of war. Despite the treaty, violence between the two countries has been on the rise, in part because the sides never agreed on the where the border lies, nor how to share oil revenues from the border region.
In the presidential statement he read, South Sudan government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin referred to Heglig by the name the south calls it — Panthou. Military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said the withdrawal would be completed within three days.
“It doesn’t mean we are abandoning the area. If our territory is being occupied we will not wait for the international community,” Aguer said. The southern military, known as the SPLA, “will be there to react to any incursions and react of bombardment doesn’t stop.”
Military aircraft from Sudan have been bombing the border area and into territory that is clearly South Sudan’s.
The increased hostilities between two regions that fought decades’ worth of civil war has world leaders concerned about a return to war. The Arab League on Thursday announced an emergency session next week to discuss the crisis, while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the sides to step back from the brink of war and return to the negotiating table.
Ban on Thursday called on South Sudan to immediately withdraw from Heglig area, calling the invasion “an infringement on the sovereignty of Sudan and a clearly illegal act.” He called on the government of Sudan to immediately stop shelling and bombing South Sudanese territory and withdraw its forces from disputed territories including Abyei.
South Sudan’s announcement on Friday comes only days after a visit to South Sudan’s capital by Princeton Lyman, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan. Lyman underscored in a meeting with Kiir and other southern leaders what he called the “unanimous” international reaction to South Sudan’s push into Heglig.
Lyman said the world community was discussing imposing sanctions in response to the military maneuver. The meeting in Juba between Lyman and Kiir was attended by Britain’s representative to South Sudan, Alastair McPhail.
“We hope that the withdrawal will be orderly and both sides will refrain from further military action and return to the negotiating table and pursue territorial claims at the negotiation,” McPhail said.
Last year troops from Sudan moved into the disputed area of Abyei and forced southern troops out of it. The south though, still believes Abyei is its territory. Benjamin said that the withdrawal from Heglig is similar: South Sudan believes it owns the land but is still withdrawing, a move that de-escalates tensions.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-04-20/sudan/54429698/1
South Sudan pledges to withdraw from disputed oil region
- South Sudan’s capture of an oil-rich region escalated fears of a return to war with Sudan
- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir had vowed to “never give up” the disputed region
- Sudan claims Heglig’s oil fields, which account for about half of the nation’s oil production
- The international community feared the two neighbors were sliding toward another war
(CNN) — South Sudan plans to withdraw troops from a disputed oil region it seized last week in a move that escalated tensions and fears of a return to war with neighboring Sudan.
The withdrawal from Heglig will occur in three days, said Barnaba Marial Benjamin, a South Sudan government spokesman.
Sudan claims Heglig’s oil fields, which account for about half of the nation’s oil production, and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir had vowed to “never give up” the disputed region.
“And we have said it before, whoever extends his hand toward Sudan, we will cut it off,” he said Thursday before South Sudan announced it would withdraw. “If they do not understand, we will make them get it by force.”
South Sudan’s seizure of the region led to intensified border clashes and threats between the two nations as the international community feared they were sliding toward another war.
“The last thing the people of these two countries need is another war — a war that could claim countless lives, destroy hope and ruin the prospects of peace and stability and prosperity of all Sudanese people,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
Both sides fought a civil war for two decades that led to about 2 million deaths.
South Sudan split from the government in the north in July, officially breaking Africa’s largest nation into two, the result of a referendum last year overwhelmingly approved by voters.
The referendum was part of a 2005 peace deal that ended the civil war that pit a government dominated by Arab Muslims in the north against black Christians and animists in the south.
Tensions run deep between the two nations, which have outstanding issues despite their divorce last year.
When they separated, South Sudan acquired three quarters of Sudan’s oil reserves. The two countries have been locked in negotiations about how much the landlocked South Sudan should pay to use a pipeline and processing facilities in the north.
Other outstanding issues remain since secession, including the status of citizens of both countries who find themselves living on either side of the world’s newest international border. The fate of disputed border areas are also a point of contention.
China, which has invested heavily Sudan’s oil industry, also argued for calm and respect for each other’s sovereignty.
Princeton Lyman, the U.S. special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, visited both countries recently to meet government officials.
There is “an enormous amount of very emotional, very powerful rhetoric coming from here in Khartoum raising the stakes in many ways and that’s worrisome in and of itself,” Lyman said Thursday.
But he said that based on the discussions he’d had with both sides, it was clear they did not want to return to war.
As long-simmering tensions soar, rights group are warning of deteriorating humanitarian conditions.
“The deteriorating situation right now is making the overall humanitarian issues very challenging,” said Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada.
Neve, who is in the South Sudan capital of Juba, said supply lines at refugee camps have been cut off and failure to get key supplies before the rains will lead to a humanitarian crisis.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/20/world/africa/sudans-disputed-region/index.html
South Sudan Announces Heglig Withdrawal
Hannah McNeish | Juba
South Sudan has said it will withdraw troops from an oil-rich area it seized last week that is also claimed by Sudan, easing tensions with its former civil war foe and fears of a return to all-out war.
Reading a statement from South Sudan President Salva Kiir, government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin announced the pullout of South Sudan‘s army — the SPLA — from the Heglig area on Friday.
Called Panthou by South Sudan, the Heglig oil field produces half of Sudan’s oil, and the international community has repeatedly called for South Sudan to withdraw as war rhetoric from Sudan has mounted.
He said that South Sudan expected the status of these areas to be determined by international arbitration and for Sudan to cease hostilities.
“In addition, the Republic of South Sudan calls on Sudan to immediately desist from air bombardments and ground incursions into the territory of the Republic of South Sudan,” Benjamin said.
Benjamin also called on the international community to play a bigger role in resolving the outstanding issues between the two nations. The issues include how to share vast oil revenues on which both sides are heavily reliant, and divide oil-rich territory along the border.
African Union-led talks over the last nine months collapsed when border fighting started on April 1. South Sudan has said it is willing to return to negotiations if the international community gives the talks more support.
The South has said it would react if Sudan carried out threats from President Omar al-Bashir to advance and crush the southern government like an “insect.”
But while the South said that its withdrawal from Heglig was not a defeat, Sudan claimed Heglig as a military victory — a sign that the two sides are still closer to war than peace.
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