UN Security Council to work on Sudanese issues
The UN Security Council will take up a draft resolution that would establish an interim peacekeeping force for the disputed border region of Abyei, US Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said on June 23.
The draft resolution calls for the deployment of 4,200 Ethiopian National Defense Force peacekeepers to the region.
The Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement signed an agreement on June 20 allowing UN peacekeepers in Abyei.
The two sides agreed in principle on the need for a third party to monitor the ill-defined border between north and south before the scheduled July 9 independence for the south.
Southern Sudan voted for independence in a January referendum that was largely peaceful. But with its separation pending, tensions have heightened to what they were like during the civil war days and there has been little cause for celebration over the birth of a nation.
The US State Department issued a warning on June 22, urging US citizens to avoid travel to the border areas - including Abyei and Southern Kordofan - as well as to the Darfur region of Sudan.
