Abyei: Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has reportedly offered to withdraw his troops from the disputed town of Abyei – a flashpoint as South Sudan prepares for independence next month. Mr Bashir is reported to have made the offer to southern leader Salva Kiir at African Union talks in Ethiopia.
Some 140,000 people have fled recent clashes in Abyei and the neighbouring region of South Kordofan.
Aid workers say pro-southern groups are being ethnically cleansed.
South Sudan is due to secede as part of a peace deal which ended two decades of north-south conflict, which left some 1.5 million people dead.
There are fears that the recent fighting could reignite the conflict, although President Bashir has said he would accept the south’s independence.
South Sudan’s Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said the details of what would happen if northern forces withdrew were still being worked out.
Mr Bashir and Mr Kiir are continuing their talks for a second day.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi are mediating the talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa
An AU statement said they would focus on the withdrawal of forces from the disputed town of Abyei, which the north forces seized last month.
It said the talks would discuss “the dispatch of an African-led international mission to provide security, to provide conditions for the speedy return of displaced people and steps towards a final settlement of the status of the area”.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is to arrive in Ethiopian capital on Monday in the latest leg of her Africa tour, is to meet Mr Kiir but not Mr Bashir, one of her aides told AFP news agency.
‘Southerners targeted’
Human rights groups have warned that southerners are being targeted by pro-northern forces in the neighbouring South Kordofan state. Although it is in the north, it is home to many pro-south communities and has been the scene of recent clashes.
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