Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Sudan and South Sudan have failed to reach agreement to
establish a demilitarized zone.

Officials said the Khartoum regime and its new southern neighbor
presented significantly different maps in trying to delineate a
demilitarized zone.

The officials said Juba cited British maps from the 1950s that
sought to separate the population according to ethnicity.

“The border is based on a map that we have been using for the past six
years, but they [South Sudan] have included five areas within their border,” Sudanese Defense Minister Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein said on June 7. “We consider it as a hostile action.”

The two countries, pressed by the international community, held 10 days
of talks in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

The Sudanese delegation said South Sudan used the demilitarization talks to press claims for the disputed oil-rich area of Heglig.

“With this [South Sudan] map, you create 10 hot spots along the border,”
Hussein said.

Khartoum said its maps stemmed from the 2006 peace agreement with the south, which became a separate state in July 2011 and took 75 percent of Sudan’s oil production.

Over the last six months, the two countries engaged in a shooting war for control over oil-rich and other areas along their 1,800-kilometer border.

Officials said two delegations agreed to halt border attacks during the
negotiations. But they said no date has been scheduled for the next session.

  Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein, Addis Ababa talks, border hot spots, Juba, Khartoum, oil-rich area of Heglig, South fail to agree on oil-rich border, Sudan