The Sudanese Government delegation to Addis Ababa negotiations protested to the AU mediation after South Sudan negotiators submitted a new map of South Sudan containing disputed border areas including the area known as “Mile 14”.

The South Sudan delegation asked the AU mediation headed by Thabo Mbeki to endorse the map as a reference for addressing border dispute.

Brig. Osman Ibrahim Banaga, member of the Sudanese negotiating team told reporters that Sudan formally objected to the map as it does not meet the known technical standards of borders.

He said the Sudanese delegation made it clear that insistence by the South Sudanese delegation on the map would obstruct efforts to settle the security and border dossier.

Banaga said Khartoum demanded that the international borders of 1.1.1956 be the reference.
In Khartoum, a diplomatic source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that all maps provided by UNMIS and UNAMID confirmed that the area known as “Mile 14” which is included in Mbeki’s map has nothing to do with South Sudan. The source said Mbeki’s map brought up a fifth area which has not been agreed upon.
Ashorooq reported an authoritative source as saying that the endorsement of such a map would impact the process of determining the de-militarized zones and locations of deployment of international observers.
Upon arrival, the Sudanese security delegation held a closed meeting with the government negotiators to be briefed on progress of the preparatory meetings convened over the past two days.
Meanwhile, a diplomatic source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed reports that Yasir Arman and Malik Agar joined the negotiations.
“The relationship of the two men with the negotiations can be viewed from two dimensions, the humanitarian dimension and their connection with the SPLM-North. The mediation is interacting with them to implement the UNSC resolution 2046” the source explained.
The source said the two men have never been part of the delegation of Sudan or So