South Sudan Withdraws from Disputed Border
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
HEGLIG, SUDAN (Worthy News)– South Sudan announced today it would withdraw its troops from the disputed border territory its forces recently acquired, thereby avoiding an all-out war with neighboring Sudan.
South Sudan spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said the withdrawal would be completed within three days.
“It doesn’t mean we are abandoning the area,” Aguer said. “If our territory is being occupied, we will not wait for the international community.”
Although President Salva Kiir still believes Heglig is still part of South Sudan, he hoped its ownership would be determined by international arbitration and not military action.
Last year, the predominantly Christian south broke away from the Muslim majority ruling Sudan, ending decades of civil war, but despite their 2005 treaty, violence between the two states has increased as neither nation has agreed on exactly where their mutual border lies, or how to share oil revenues from lands on that border.
Strike aircraft from Sudan have not only bombed the border, but have attacked deeper into land that clearly belongs to South Sudan.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged both sides to return to the negotiating table; he called upon Sudan to immediately withdraw from Heglig and for Sudan to stop bombing South Sudan.