JUBA – The South Sudanese immigration department has revealed that preparations are underway to reopen the borders with Sudan following a recent agreement struck by President Salva Kiir and Sudanese Prime Minister Dr. Abdallah Hamdok.
The Director-General for Immigration, Nationality, and Passport, Gen. Atem Marol Biar told the media that the two countries have rolled out preparations to ensure security prevails come the reopening date of October 1.
“Last week I was in Sudan for a workshop, and it was about the border issues. So what we are doing now we are preparing our officers who will be deployed to those areas,” said Gen. Biar.
He emphasized that four border points will be officially reopened at the beginning of October.
According to Biar, there is already a workshop in South Sudan for officers on how they can handle the borders.
He revealed that the workshop is focusing on the kinds of documents to be used between South Sudan and Sudan after the reopening of borders between the two countries.
To this, he said the two countries settled on documents that will not inconvenience the traders or individuals crossing the border points.
Agreement made
The decision was made during a three-day state visit by Dr. Hamdok to the South Sudanese capital Juba last weekend.
The two countries closed borders in 2011 when relations deteriorated after South Sudan seceded. Khartoum at the time blamed South Sudan for supporting SPLA-North rebels in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan and the Blue Nile region. Sudan’s former president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, briefly ordered the opening of the border in January 2016.
During the visit to Juba, Prime Minister Hamdok’s and Sudan’s trade and investment minister, Dhieu Mathok Diing, said the move was also to spur the cross-border trade.
Many issues were discussed, among them the cooperation agreement, how to operationalize the cooperation agreements which were signed in 2012.