The Government of South Sudan has demanded that Sudan released a total of 35,000 South Sudanese captured during the civil war from Western and Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Warrap and Unity states for slavery.
SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum said South Sudan’s negotiating team in Addis Ababa raised the issue of citizenship alongside the problem of Southerners captured during the civil war and being used as slaves in Sudan, Bakhita Radio reported.He said no agreement was reached over the matter.
Mr Amum added that his team would work hard to free enslaved Southerners because South Sudan’s independence means freedom for all Southerners.
He explained that South Sudan is not liberated until there is a single Southerner under slavery in the Sudan.
Mr Amum said the last round of negotiation focused on Abyei, border demarcation and status of Southerners in Sudan and Sudanese in South Sudan.
He added that his team would stick to the January 1 1956 borders between Sudan and South Sudan.
Mr Amum said South Sudan negotiating team is concerned about South Sudanese pensioners who are stuck in the Sudan waiting for Khartoum to pay their dues.
The chief negotiator revealed that his team raised the matter of South Sudanese pensioners with the African Union mediators but the parties have not yet reached an agreement.