Khartoum (AFP) – Sudan and South Sudan have no choice but to work together in order to avoid “suicide”, former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi said on Tuesday. “It is a win-win formula or a lose-lose formula,” Mahdi, who leads a major opposition party, Umma, told a gathering organised by the South Sudanese embassy. Sudan and South Sudan fought along their undemarcated frontier in March and April, sparking fears of wider war and leading to a UN Security Council resolution which ordered a ceasefire and the settlement of critical unresolved issues. The two sides have no choice but to cooperate, Mahdi said, because “what is happening now is suicide”. After weeks of fragile talks in the Ethiopian capital, Sudan and South Sudan on 4 August reached a breakthrough agreement over fees due by Juba for shipping its oil through the north’s pipeline for export.
