The governments of Sudan and South Sudan have agreed to reopen their borders starting with the immediate operationalization of four gazetted border crossing points.
The move resulted from a three-day state visit by Sudanese Prime Minister, Dr. Abdallah Hamdok, to the South Sudanese capital Juba over the weekend.
The border was closed in 2011 when relations deteriorated after the south seceded. Khartoum at the time blamed South Sudan for supporting the SPLA-North rebels in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan and the Blue Nile region. Sudan’s former president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, briefly ordered the opening of the border in January 2016.
While briefing the media at the end of Prime Minister Hamdok’s visit, South Sudan’s trade and investment minister, Dhieu Mathok Diing, said the two countries agreed to open the border starting with four border crossings.
“During the visit, many issues were discussed, among them the cooperation agreement, how to operationalize the cooperation agreements which were signed in 2012. And in this regard, the ministers are going to operationalize the implementation of these agreements including the opening of the borders,” Minister Mathok said. “The two countries agreed to start with four border crossings namely; Buram –Timsah in Western Behr El Ghazal state, Meram –Wanjok in Northern Behr El Ghazal State, Jebelain –Renk in Upper Nile state and Kharasana –Pan Akuac in Unity state.”
He added: “The two governments agreed that on 1 October, they are going to officially launch the opening of the borders at Jebelain town and this is going to be attended by the governments from both sides and the stakeholders. The other means are going to open, river and railway transport are also going to be opened.”
Mathok said that a lot of issues also regarding security cooperation came up and that the two countries agreed on how to enhance security cooperation at the border.
For her part, the Sudanese foreign affairs minister, Mariam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, said Dr. Hamdok’s visit was historic because it marked an important phase in the relations of the two countries.
“This visit, as said by Prime Minister Dr. Abdallah Hamdok, is historic because it is marking a very important phase in the relations of the two sisterly countries. It is true that we are one people in two countries. It has been used as a slogan but now we are here to implement and make this [slogan] a reality,” Foreign minister Al-Mahdi said.
She said the visit started with the objectives of addressing the peace in South Sudan to which Sudan is a guarantor as well as the peace of Sudan to which South Sudan is a guarantor and that it also addressed bilateral relations as well as the international issues.
“This visit was preceded by an advance preparatory group headed by the newly appointed Sudanese special envoy to the peace of South Sudan, ambassador Abdurrahman Bakhit, and it was well prepared for and it materialized the high political will of the two countries to cooperate and to work for the stability, security and the wellbeing of the people of the two countries,” Al-Mahdi said. “There are three important MoUs that have been signed and the new thing about them is that it is put with a timeline. The border will be opened in Al Jebelain on 1 October. The joint political and security committee will convene in Juba between 4 and 5 of September 2021.”
She said the ministries of foreign affairs have been assigned to look at all the agreements since 2012, to update and upgrade them according to the new developments and openness between the two governments.
Dr. Hamdok, who is the current chairperson of IGAD, was accompanied by the ministers of defense, foreign affairs, trade, transportation, the governor of the Central Bank of Sudan, and other senior government officials.
The three-day state visit concluded Saturday.