Report: South Sudan sues Khartoum over oil

South Sudan’s government has warned the Sudanese government against continuing to delay the export of its petroleum through its northern ports by preventing ships carrying crude from transporting South Sudan's petroleum. Heightening the tension, Juba said that it would stop pumping oil on 15 January, two days before the scheduled resumption of negotiations between the two nations in Addis Ababa under African Union auspices if the Sudanese government continued using what it described as “the law of the jungle” in dealing with the newly independent South Sudan. 

JUBA (R

Call it a “package,” though a more accurate word might be “bribe.” South Sudan’s government has offered Sudanese authorities in Khartoum a “package” to break the rising tension-filled gridlock over South Sudan using its northern neighbour’s pipeline network to ship out its oil exports. Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) Secretary General Pagan Amum Okiech announced in Juba that the “package” is part of the proposal they plan to present to the African Union (AU) High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) on Sudan, chaired by former South African president, Thabo Mbeki.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's dispute with its southern neighbor over oil transit fees has created a 6.5 billion pound ($2.4 billion) gap in the country's public finances and caused exports to plunge 83 percent, the Sudanese finance minister said on Monday. South Sudan inherited three-quarters of oil production when it gained independence from the North last July. But the pipelines are in Sudan and the two have been unable to agree on how much the South should pay to transport its oil, with the row escalating into a low-level armed conflict in recent weeks. ...

The United Nations is sending peacekeeper reinforcements to the strife-torn Sudanese state of South Kordofan and has turned its main base there into a safe haven for refugees, UN officials said.More than 120 Bangladeshi troops will lead reinforcements sent to the state's main city, Kadugli, where Khartoum government troops are battling forces loyal to southern Sudan which is on the verge of forming a breakaway nation.