South Sudan Agrees to Participate in African Mediation Meetings

Defense Minister of South Sudan Kuol Manyang announced that his country agreed to participate in African mediation meetings to be held in Addis Ababa on May 8-9 to resolve outstanding issues with Sudan.
In a press statement Tuesday, Manyang confirmed that his country received an official invitation from the African High-level Mechanism headed by Thabo Mbeki to resume negotiations on security and military issues with the Sudanese government.
The South Sudan Defense Minister reiterated his country's desire to end tensions with Sudan and normalize relations. He said that they are looking forward to major breakthroughs in coming meetings of the joint political-security committee between the two countries and resolve all pending issues, adding that the new round of meetings would focus on the security arrangements files in particular demarcating border, determining the safe demilitarized zone and stop harboring rebel movements against each party.
Khartoum and Juba are in a state of tension and mutual accusations due to the lack of full and strict implementation of the security arrangements. Khartoum stresses that it is a top priority for the implementation of the joint cooperation agreement and without Khartoum, no steps can be taken towards full normalization.
The State of Southern Sudan is currently witnessing a difficult security and humanitarian situation due to the civil war since December 2013. All African and international efforts have failed to contain this war due to the depth of internal differences between armed tribes.

Source: QNA