Armies of North, South Sudan Promise No War

The defense ministers from northern and southern Sudan are vowing there will be no return to war.

In a joint televised appearance from Khartoum, Sudanese Defense Minister Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein and the south’s minister in charge of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, Nhial Deng Nhial, said they want to send a message to their citizens that they have committed themselves to peace.

Nhial said regardless of the amount of differences between the two sides, all disagreements will be resolved through political dialogue.

Sudan is scheduled to hold a referendum January 9 on whether south Sudan becomes independent.

Both the south and the north have accused each other of building up weapons and massing troops along their shared boundary ahead of the vote.

The referendum is part of a 2005 peace agreement that ended more than two decades of war between the north and south.

The sides remain in disagreement about a string of issues, including the line of their border and how they would share oil if the south votes for secession.

A separate referendum to be held January 9 is to decide whether the oil-producing Abyei region in the middle of the country becomes part of the north or the south.

Some information in this story was provided by AFP and Reuters.