Sudanese soldiers cheer on a military vehicle in the oil town of Heglig bordering with South Sudan on April 24, 2012. (Image: AFP)
The conflicting developments on Sunday raised questions whether United Nations appeals for an end to more than three weeks of border clashes between Sudan and South Sudan would bear fruit and avert full-blown war in an oil-producing region.
South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan nine months ago under a 2005 settlement that ended two decades of civil war which killed more than 2 million people, informed the United Nations that it planned to withdraw all police from the Abyei region.
But in Khartoum, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir declared a state of emergency in some areas of South Kordofan, White Nile and Sinnar provinces bordering South Sudan.
The United Nations has urged Sudan and South Sudan to withdraw troops and police from disputed regions along their 1,800 km frontier in northeast Africa.
The conflict, which escalated after the two failed to agree on a string of disputes, has halted nearly all oil production in both countries, damaging their shaky economies.
South Sudan's army seized the contested Heglig oilfield earlier this month but announced a withdrawal more than a week ago, bowing to U.N. pressure.
Both countries claim Abyei, a border region of fertile grazing land. Khartoum took it over last year after a South Sudanese attack on an army convoy, triggering the exodus of tens of thousands of civilians.
There are 3,800 U.N. peacekeepers in Abyei after the Security Council authorised the deployment in June last year.
(Reuters)
