Sudan’s co-chair of Abyei Joint Oversight Committee (AJOC) Ali Hassan Nemir says the recent agreement reached by Sudan and South Sudan in Addis Ababa to operationalize the demilitarised border zone will help stabilize the security situation in the contested area of Abyei.

In a statement to the Sudanese Media Centre (SMC) on Friday, Ali said resumption of meetings of the Joint Political and Security Mechanism between Khartoum and Juba under the auspices of the African mediation, and the agreement to create a demilitarized zone along the common borders between Sudan and South Sudan will affect positively the Abyei Area.

Last week, Sudan and South Sudan accepted a map presented to them by the African Union (AU) as the basis for establishing a Safe Demilitarised Border Zone (SDBZ) in line with the 2012 Addis Ababa Cooperation Agreement.

Map: Small Arms Survey