Sudan denies Bashir’s visit to Juba next week

The Sudanese Presidency announced that there are no current arrangements for a visit by Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir to the State of South Sudan next week. Press Secretary of the Sudanese President Emad Sayed Ahmed said in a statement today that the President’s programme over the next two weeks, contains several internal activities, foremost of which being the visit of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsy to Khartoum on the fourth and fifth of April, adding that Al Bashir will also address the new session of Parliament, in addition to many other activities. The comments came in the wake of an announcement by Juba that preparations have completed to receive Al Bashir and a statement by South Sudan Information Minister Barnabas Benjamin that the Sudanese president will visit Juba shortly.