Addis talks get nowhere as usual!

Regrettably, but as expected, the governments of Sudan and South Sudan have failed to reach agreement on troop withdrawal, and talks ended, after several days of negotiation in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, without a clear-cut agreement on security arrangements and oil production, which translates into further delay in the resumption of oil exports crucial to both sides.

Both parties also traded their usual accusations of unwillingness to reach a final agreement on outstanding issues, and both accused each other of making new demands, leading to postponement of talks until Feb. 13.

South Sudan’s negotiating team said in a statement on Saturday that a major sticking point has been the demilitarization of a contested strip of land, known as Mile 14, bordering on Sudan’s Darfur and South Sudan’s Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal states.

On his part, Sudan’s negotiating team leader, defense minister Abdel-Rahim Mohammed Hussein accused South Sudan of changing its stance and reneging on former agreements backed by the two presidents in their latest summit, pointing out that South Sudan has made new demands for demilitarization of a disputed border area called Mile-14, and had not given up support for rebels fighting Sudan's government.

 "We faced difficulties during the talks in Addis Ababa because of shifting positions by South Sudan which keep changing every time we reach an agreement," Hussein told reporters upon his return in Khartoum airport on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) had been planning to publish last week a timetable for setting up the buffer zone.

But in a statement it issued on Saturday, the panel only said both sides had made "substantial progress" and would hold further talks on the buffer zone and "the key issue on when and under what circumstances oil exports could resume." The panel, however, did not specify exactly when these talks would resume.

“The AUHIP welcomes the progress made by the Parties, and is encouraged by the continued engagement of the delegations towards the implementation of the cooperation agreements”. The statement read, adding that “The AUHIP will continue to engage the Parties, and is confident that the occasion of the forthcoming African Union Summit at the end of January, will present a further opportunity for the two Presidents to make further progress in resolving the outstanding issues, which are critical for the establishment of peaceful relations between the two states and for their mutual viability and prosperity”.

The international community in general and the African Union in particular claim to be continuing their efforts to pressure both sides to return to talks to resolve disputes over security arrangements and oil exports, border and other issues.

  It seems there will be no progress on the ground, and negotiations will continue much like a seemingly never-ending Mexican drama series!

The AUHIP comes out to announce, after every failed round, that another promising round by the presidents of the two countries will be held. All this when in fact no discussions have been resumed, and no actual steps have been taken to settle differences between the two countries.

While the two countries continue to accuse each other of unwillingness to reach agreement on key disputes, both bear a great measure of responsibility for creating the sort of difficulty that could lead to an economic and humanitarian catastrophe, negatively impacting citizens on either side.