South Sudan’s Minister of the Interior is traveling to Khartoum this week for discussions on the opening of ten border crossings with Sudan.

Allison Manani Magaya, South Sudan’s Interior Minister, will aim to open ten border crossings in order to better facilitate the movement of people and goods.  However, this must follow the deployment of police, immigration and customs officers along the shared border.

In another development, South Sudan’s embassy in Sudan has started to send diplomats to Kosti and Port Sudan to establish consular offices and provide more localised consular services to citizens of both nations.

Progress in the implementation of the Cooperation Agreement was reported on to the UN Security Council yesterday in an informal, closed-door session. The council heard from the chairperson of the African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), Thabo Mbeki, and the former chairperson and continued member of the mechanism, Abdul Salam Abu-Bakar on the progress of security talks.

Sudan’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Dafallah al-Hajj, claimed that Mbeki notified the council of the recent positive developments given the implementation matrix signed by both Juba and Khartoum on the 8^th of March.

The border had been closed to traders and pastoralists since early last year, compounding economic hardship brought to many since rising tensions resulted in the temporary shut-down of oil production, lower public sector wages and higher costs of living.

File photo: Allison Manani Magaya (gurtong.net)