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/ 11 October 2007
The main party in southern Sudan has suspended its participation in the national government until its northern partners reignite a stalled peace process, the secretary general of the party said on Thursday. Pagan Amum of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) said: ”The SPLM has recalled all ministers and presidential advisers.”
South Sudan has awarded two companies exploration licenses for gold and uranium in areas thought to be rich in minerals. British/South African New Kush Exploration and Mining Company and the United Kingdom-listed Brinkley Mining paid 000 for one-year exploration licenses in the area bordering Kenya.
Sudan’s northern army has missed a deadline to move its troops to the north under a peace deal and are still paying illegal militias based in the south, the United Nations said. A January 2005 north-south peace deal created a southern autonomous government and two separate armies with joint units in key towns.
Talks between Uganda’s government and northern rebels to end two decades of civil war resumed on Thursday with a United Nations envoy warning both sides not to let the chance for peace slip through their grasp. Three months ago, the LRA negotiators walked out of the talks after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir threatened them.
Under bright yellow umbrellas in a dusty market in south Sudan’s capital Juba, men sit with handfuls of up to five currencies, all of which can still pay your way in some parts of this semi-autonomous region. A north-south accord in 2005 ended Africa’s longest war, bringing peace to Sudan’s south although a separate conflict continues in western Darfur.