{{Sudan and South Sudan agreed on Tuesday to open 10 crossings along their joint border to boost travel and trade after a thaw in relations between two sides that had come close to war.}}<\/p>\n
Highlighting the volatile situation along the 2,000-km (1,200-mile) boundary, Sudan’s army and rebels fought a battle in a state bordering South Sudan.<\/p>\n
Sudan closed the border after South Sudan’s secession in 2011 – hitting traders and communities on both sides.<\/p>\n
Almost a year after the split, border skirmishes brought both countries close to full-blown war over unresolved disputes about oil, territory and other issues.<\/p>\n
But the African neighbors agreed last month to resume cross-border oil flows, following talks brokered by the African Union.<\/p>\n
Both sides said they would open 10 road, rail and Nile river crossing, eight of them immediately, in fresh AU talks in Ethiopia on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
One crossing will link South Sudan’s Unity state with Heglig, home to an oilfield vital to Sudan’s economy which South Sudan’s army briefly occupied last year.<\/p>\n
Sudan’s army and a rebel group said on Tuesday they had fought in southern Darfur, a region bordering South Sudan, the scene of a decade-long insurgency by non-Arab tribes.<\/p>\n
Army spokesman al-Sawarmi Khalid told media his forces had killed several rebels, among them three commanders, and destroyed 15 of their cars during a five-hour battle.<\/p>\n
A number of soldiers were also killed, he said.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for a faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army said it had beaten the army and killed more than 70 soldiers.<\/p>\n
Events in Darfur are hard to verify due to severe travel restrictions for foreign journalists.<\/p>\n
Sudan has in the past accused South Sudan of backing rebels in Darfur and two border states, claims denied by Juba.<\/p>\n
Landlocked South Sudan shut down its 350,000 barrel-per-day crude output in January last year in a row over how much it should pay to send the oil through Sudan to the Red Sea.<\/p>\n
The agreement to resume oil flows gave a lifeline to both countries’ struggling economies which rely on foreign currency from oil sales and pipeline fees to import food and fuel.<\/p>\n
Sudan expects the first oil cargo from South Sudan to arrive next week, state media said on Monday.<\/p>\n
South Sudan declared independence from Sudan in July 2011 under a 2005 peace deal which ended one of Africa’s longest civil wars. <\/p>\n
The two remain at loggerheads over control of disputed territories such as the border region of Abyei.<\/p>\n
{reuters}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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