ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, January 4, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, welcomes the convening, in Addis Ababa, today, 4 January 2013, of a Summit meeting between President Omar Hassan Al Bashir of the Republic of Sudan and President Salva Kiir Mayardit of the Republic of South Sudan. The Summit will take place under the auspices of the Chairperson of the Inter-Governmental Authority Development (IGAD), Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia, and the Chair of the AU High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), former President Thabo Mbeki.
The Chairperson of the Commission is deeply encouraged by the convening of the Summit meeting. She expresses the hope that this meeting will enable the two Presidents to agree on the best means and ways of overcoming the challenges encountered in the implementation of the landmark Agreements on the post-secession relations between their countries, concluded under the auspices of the AUHIP, in Addis Ababa, on 27 September 2012, as well as to find solutions to the pending issues of the Abyei Area and the borders.
It should be recalled that, at its 349th meeting, held in Addis Ababa, on 14 December 2012, the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) welcomed the willingness of the two Presidents to meet and encouraged the convening of the meeting in the shortest possible time, in order to remove bottlenecks on all pending issues. The PSC also agreed to convene at the level of the Heads of State and Government, on the margins of the forthcoming AU Summit, in Addis Ababa, in January 2013, to review all outstanding issues arising from the 24 April 2012 PSC Communiqué and Roadmap.
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