South Sudan expresses alarm at Sudan situation

JUBA, South Sudan

By Mach

South Sudan’s government on Thursday said it is concerned over the ongoing political crisis in its former civil war enemy, Sudan.

Martin Elia Lomoro, the cabinet affairs minister, told a meeting that South Sudan is alarmed at how things are unfolding in the aftermath of mass protests that have rocked the Northeast African nation since last December.

“We know that Sudan labored so hard to restore peace and stability and because of that we have the current prevailing peace agreement in South Sudan,” Lomoro said in capital Juba.

Earlier Thursday, hundreds of thousands of Sudanese people flooded the streets in Khartoum and other cities to celebrate as Omar al-Bashir stepped down as president.

Al-Bashir is now under house arrest and his bodyguards have been detained, local media reported.

Sudan and South Sudan have been at odds on a range of issues from disputed borders in oil-rich Abyei and Heglig to trade that threatened bilateral ties since the latter broke away from Sudan in 2011 under a peace agreement that ended a two-decade civil war.