Sudan To Reopen Border With South Sudan: State Media

Sudan will reopen its border crossings with South Sudan after the former civil war foes reached a security deal last month, Sudanese state media said on Sunday.

Cross-border trade between the two countries largely stopped ahead of South Sudan’s secession from Sudan last year, severing historic supply routes for food, fuel and consumer goods.

The halt stoked double-digit inflation in the South as traders in border states and elsewhere began to rely on goods trucked in from Kenya and Uganda at a premium.

Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir announced “the opening of the border and the land and river passages” with South Sudan, state radio said in a text message sent to mobile phones.

The two countries broke apart in July last year under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war, but remained embroiled in disputes over oil, contested areas along the border and other issues.

Under international pressure, the countries agreed last month to secure their shared border. The deal paved the way for the landlocked South to resume oil exports, which it shut down in January in a row with Khartoum over fees.

Reuters