WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday spoke with Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and military leader General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the State Department said, after the military reinstated Hamdok on Sunday following last month’s coup.
Blinken told Sudanese leaders in calls that the country needs to make more progress on democracy before Washington resumes $700 million in suspended aid.
“We must continue to see progress, we must continue to see Sudan move back down the democratic path, and that starts with the reinstitution of the Prime Minister but it certainly doesn’t end there,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
“This is the first step. It’s not the last step,” Price added.
He said there was no resumption of assistance, adding, “These decisions will be predicated entirely on what happens in the coming hours and the coming days and the coming weeks.”
(With Reuters and AFP)
Blinken tells Sudan leaders that US wants more progress before restoring aid
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Blinken tells Sudan leaders that US wants more progress before restoring aid
- Blinken urges more Sudan’s leaders progress before US aid resumes
South Sudan says its troops are guarding strategic Heglig oil field in Sudan
- Sudanese government forces and workers at the Heglig oil field withdrew from the area on Sunday to avoid fighting that could have damaged facilities there
NAIROBI: South Sudan has sent its troops to neighboring Sudan to guard the strategic Heglig oil field near the border, its military head said on Thursday, days after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took control of it.
Heglig houses the main processing facility for South Sudanese oil, which makes up the bulk of South Sudan’s public revenues. Some oil has continued to flow through Heglig, though at much reduced volumes.
Sudanese government forces and workers at the Heglig oil field withdrew from the area on Sunday to avoid fighting that could have damaged facilities there, government sources told Reuters on Monday.
General Paul Nang, South Sudan chief of defense forces, said the troop deployment was agreed between South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, Sudan Army Chief General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and RSF head Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
“The three agreed that the area of Heglig should be protected because (it) is a very important strategic area for the two countries,” Nang said in comments on state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Radio.
“Now it is the forces of South Sudan that are in Heglig.”
Oil is transported through the Greater Nile pipeline system to Port Sudan on the Red Sea for export, making the Heglig site critical both for Sudan’s foreign exchange earnings and for South Sudan, which is landlocked and relies almost entirely on pipelines through Sudan.
Another pipeline, Petrodar, runs from South Sudan’s Upper Nile State to Port Sudan.
The war that started in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF has repeatedly disrupted South Sudan’s oil flows, which before the conflict averaged between 100,000 and 150,000 barrels per day for export via Sudan.
