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UN Security Council threatens Sudan & South Sudan with sanctions

The African Union called on both sides in the conflict to end hostilities in 48 hours and withdraw troops from disputable areas

UNITED NATIONS, May 2 (Itar-Tass) — Sudan and South Sudan will face a threat of international sanctions if they fail to meet the African Union’s demand to end armed border clashes and start peace talks in the next two weeks, the U.N. Security Council said in a resolution unanimously adopted on Wednesday.

Late in April, the African Union called on both sides in the conflict to end hostilities in 48 hours and withdraw troops from disputable areas. The African Union also warned Khartoum and Juba that it would make its decisions mandatory if the sides didn’t settle their differences in the course of three months.

In its resolution the United Nations Security Council said it was determined to resort to diplomatic and economic sanctions in case if one or two parties ignore its demand. Besides, the Security Council condemned the ongoing violence on the border between the two countries, the seizure of the oil-rich Heglig region by South Sudan and the bombardments of the territory of the South by Sudan’s aviation.

Sudan and the neighboring Republic of South Sudan are practically in a state of war. Juba insists that the territory of the disputable Heglig region which produces almost half of Sudan’s oil (about 115,000 barrels a day) be part of the southern republic, while the North is categorically opposed to the South’s sovereignty over the territory.