The minister for Africa at the UK foreign office, Henry Bellingham has welcomed South Sudan’s withdrawal from Abyei, and stressed the need for Sudanese troops to begin meeting steps to withdraw from the area.

Bellingham added that this would allow more than 100,000 people that fled from Abyei last year, to return.

He said this was only one step on the roadmap towards a comprehensive settlement of all outstanding differences between Sudan and South Sudan as identified by the African Union and the UN security council.

The minister urged both Khartoum and Juba to cooperate to implement the remaining steps set out by the roadmap.