Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Sudan welcomes oil border ruling

An international court in The Hague has redrawn the borders of Sudan’s oil-rich Abyei region, which has been at the center of intense friction between the country's north and south.
The permanent court of arbitration on Wednesday moved the region's northern, eastern and western boundaries inward, shrinking the size of the territory.
Both Sudan’s northern-based government and the semi-autonomous south say they believe the court's decision is fair. Both sides had claimed the Abyei region and its oil wealth. The Abyei region boundaries had been drawn under at 2005 peace deal that ended Sudan’s 21-year north-south civil war. Under the 2005 deal, most of the oil resources were located within southern Sudan. The U.N.'s special representative to Sudan, Ashraf Qazi, recently visited Abyei and met with officials from both parties. Paul Ndiho has more.

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