The Sudan government has given at least two weeks’ respite to South Sudan before the shutdown of oil pipelines, agreeing to adjust the 7 August deadline that was originally set after complaints over Juba’s support to the Sudan Revolutionary Front.

The announcement came after an intervention by Thabo Mbeki, head of the African Union High-level Implementation Panel, and Ethiopian Foreign Affairs Minister Tadros Adhanom, who met for about 90 minutes on Thursday with President Omar al-Bashir. The two mediators also met with Vice-President Ali Osman Taha.

"Sudan has agreed to postpone for two week the deadline at the request of (African Union mediator Thabo) Mbeki," Rahmatullah Osman, undersecretary in the foreign ministry, told Reuters.

China’s special envoy to Africa, Zhong Jianhua, is also reported to have met with al-Bashir and to have supported a delay to allow more time for consultations that would avert a shutdown of the oil pipelines.

The African Union has named three generals to investigate Sudanese allegations that South Sudan is supporting anti-Khartoum rebels. This Ad Hoc Investigative Mechanism is comprised of Brigadier-General Luis Inacio Muxito, Major-General (Retired) Julius Olakunle Sunday Oshanupin, and Brigadier-General Jean Baptiste Tine.

The panel has already arrived in Khartoum and will later visit Juba, Mbeki said in remarks to press on Thursday. Another committee is tasked with determining the centre line of the demilitarized zone between the two countries.

File photo: Presidential Assistant Nafi Ali Nafi (left) and Second Vice President al-Haj Adam Yusuf (right)