Security Council says final settlement of Abyei should be through negotiation

Khartoum-The Security Council renewed on Sunday the mandate of the interim UN force in Abyei and affirmed that the final settlement of Abyei should be through negotiations not any other individual measures.

The Sudanese permanent mission in New York said in statement to the Sudan News Agency that the decision has affirmed the commitments of governments of Sudan and South Sudan in accordance with the 20th of June 2011 agreement on Abyei, the 29th of June agreement on the security of borders and the common security and political mechanism and the agreement of 30 July on supporting monitoring of borders.

The decision has expressed concerns over what the African Union Security and Peace Council has considered as unilateral decision the conduction of unilateral referendum by Dinka Ngok.

The decision has stressed the necessity of not taking any unilateral measures, saying that the non-activation of the demilitarized zone was because of the South Sudan rejection to the zero line of the area. The decisions said that the withdrawal of South Sudan monitors from the mechanism was the reason for not activating the joint mechanism for monitoring borders.

The mission said that after the approval of the decision, the acting charge d’affaires of Sudan to the UN ambassador Hassan Hamid has made statement in which he affirmed the importance of commitment and full implementation of the agreements that were signed between the two countries on settlement of the final status of Abyei area, the other agreements that were signed in the 27th of September 2012 and the implementation protocol that was signed in march, 12, 2013.

Ambassador Hamid has said that all these agreements represent one package that should be implemented equally. He said that the establishment of the interim administrative and security mechanisms (legislative assembly, administration and police) is the shortest means for settling the final status of Abyei area.