ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia and Sudan continued their discussions over the Abyei issue on Saturday with Sudanese Presidential Assistant Nafie Ali Nafie and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn meeting for talks on the topic. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir had signed a Cooperation Agreement last September. Even still, the two countries were unable to settle their differences over a referendum to be held in Abyei or to make progress on the territorial disputes along the new 1,800km international border, reports indicated. According to Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Desalegn and Nafie discussed future of Abyei the main region of contention, where Ethiopian peacekeepers have been deployed for over a year in a UN force with a chapter seven mandate from the UN Security Council. An Ethiopian government official told Bikyamasr.com that the talks “went well” and Addis Ababa expressed hope that they would be able to “sort through the issues with both sides in order to come to a solution.” Tensions have risen in the area since Bashir announced his rejection of a decision by the African Union Peace and Security Council providing to implement a proposal by the mediation to hold the referendum in October 2013 without the Misseriya, should they fail to strike a deal within 6 weeks. Before arriving in Ethiopia, Nafie toured a number of African countries to explain the position of his government over the issue. Sudan accuses the mediation of backing the South Sudanese position says favorable to the partition of the disputed region between the two countries. Desalegn and Nafie further discussed the conflict in Blue Nile state, which has forced 38,000 people to flee into Ethiopia. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says that 68,901 people have also been displaced in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian premier reaffirmed his country's intention to continue to help mediate discussions with the Presidents of Sudan and South Sudan to resolve the differences between the two countries and find a durable solution. Ethiopia, which shares border with the two countries, is seen as honest broker by both Sudan and South Sudan and the east African nation, and is the seat of the African Union, which has hosted a number of rounds of talks between the two Sudans.
