Direct peace talks between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) have reportedly been postponed due to the funeral of the former South African president Nelson Mandela.

The chief mediator and former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who was in Johannesburg when Mandela died on Thursday night, cancelled the meeting as he will attend the funeral of the late leader on 15 December, according to a reliable source.

The Sudanese government and SPLM-N officials previously confirmed their readiness for the peace talks in order to end the two-year conflict in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

The African Union High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) also postponed the meeting of the Sudan-South Sudan Joint Political and Security Mechanism (JPSM) with the purpose to discuss their differences over the baseline for the demilitarized security zone between the two countries, the so-called ‘Zero Line’.

For his part, the spokesperson for the SPLM-N confirmed that at least ten troops of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) have been killed in clashes between the SAF and the SPLM-N in the locality of Bau in Blue Nile State. He added that the government forces sustained losses in terms of lives and equipment.

File photo: Thabo Mbeki at a meeting in Khartoum (Albert Gonzalez Farran/Unamid)

Related: Khartoum announces African mediators’ call for talks with SPLM-N (26 November 2013)