Sudan blocks South's oil shipment

Port Sudan (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/192589.html

Sudan has prevented a shipment of oil produced in South Sudan from leaving port after Juba refused to pay customs fees, escalating tensions between the neighbors.

"Sudan has blocked the ship in Port Sudan... When the ship leaves the port, the South has to pay the customs authorities. This is the first time they didn't pay," Sudan Foreign Ministry spokesman Al-Obeid Meruh was quoted by AFP as saying on Friday.

The spokesperson earlier said Juba had refused to pay the north's fees for the use of its oil infrastructure, such as its pipeline, and therefore the cargo of 600,000 barrels had been blocked.

Meruh went on to say that Sudan and South Sudan have not reached an agreement about the transit fees, adding that Khartoum is asking for $32 per barrel.

South Sudan says other states charge a fee of $1.8 per barrel for providing the same facilities, urging the north to consider international standards in setting the fees.

The event intensifies a row between the neighbors in which Juba accuses Khartoum of making efforts to impede its economic growth.

"They want to stop the shipment so that it prolongs the whole [negotiating] process. Khartoum is trying to sabotage the economy of South Sudan," said David Loro, undersecretary for South Sudan's Ministry of Energy and Mines.

Loro added that a southern committee is holding negotiations with Sudanese authorities in Khartoum over the issue of transit fees.

The landlocked South has to use the north's infrastructure to pump oil, which according to the World Bank, accounts for nearly 95 percent of its total revenue.

South Sudan becomes independent

Citizens of the new country celebrate independence of the South Sudan at midnight in the capital Juba, July 9, 2011

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/188209.html

South Sudan has become independent, making it Africa's newest nation and the world's newest country.

South Sudan became independent several minutes ago, shortly after midnight local time on July 9.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Sudanese President Omar Bashir, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Yehia al-Gamal, and other prominent political figures travelled to the South Sudan capital Juba on Friday to attend the independence ceremony of the new Republic of South Sudan.

Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, and the head of the US military's Africa Command, Gen Carter Ham were also in Juba for the independence day celebrations.

President Bashir, who forged the 2005 peace deal with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), expressed readiness to work with the “Southern brothers and help them set up their state so that, God willing, this state will be stable and develop.”

“The cooperation between us will be excellent, particularly when it comes to marking and preserving the border so there is a movement of citizens and goods via this border,” he said.

South Sudan becomes the 193rd country recognized by the United Nations and the 54th UN member state in Africa.

Joyful residents of the new nation banged on jerry cans and chanted the name of the world's newest president, Salva Kiir, the Associated Press reported.

“We are brothers and sisters who suffered for a long time, and that is why we are now celebrating, what we will achieve,” said a resident.

“In independence we are going to have hospitals and schools and a lot of development around here. Our mothers and sisters died in the past. Hospitals were very far from us.”

South Sudan's independence comes after decades of conflict with the north in which over 1.5 million people died. The new oil-rich nation is one of the least developed countries in the world, where one in seven children dies before the age of five.

A historic peace agreement between North and South Sudan signed in 2005 paved the way for an independence referendum in January 2011, in which southerners voted almost unanimously to secede. North Sudan has officially recognized southern independence.