The confidence-building workshop on border demarcation between Sudan and South Sudan that started earlier this week is expected to conclude on Friday.

The workshop was organised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by the African Union Border Programme as part of a panel headed by former South African President Thabo Mbeki.

Jibril Isaac, a committee member from South Sudan told Radio Tamazuj that the workshop aimed to build confidence between the parties to pave the way toward border demarcation.

He pointed out that serious discussions on border demarcation will start on Friday, which is expected to be the closing date.

However, he did not provide further detail about when the border demarcation will be implemented on the ground between the two Sudans.

For his part, Abdullah El Sadiq Ali, the Director General for Sudanese National Survey Authority said the main purpose of the workshop was for confidence-building between the two sides.

“If the two sides are lacking confidence, I am sure they will never reach any agreement on border demarcation,” he said.

El Sadiq said he was impressed by the worship after receiving information on global border trends from African experts and various joint border commissions.

On first day of the workshop, the Sudanese delegation rejected any proposal to reach a resolution during the workshop, but agreed to compile a special report at the end of the workshop on Friday.