The government says it is working with the neighboring states to demarcate its borders in a bid to meet the African Union border demarcation deadline.

The AU has directed all the African countries to finish the exercise by 2017.

Through its border program, which began in 2007, AU encourages all African states with outstanding border disputes to delimit and demarcate their boundaries by the end of 2010 but the program failed to meet the deadline, mainly due to lack of technical support, funding and failed arbitration attempts to settle running border disputes between many African countries.

South Sudan also has disputed borders with the Sudan and claimed areas with Uganda.

Last month, South Sudanese authorities said Kenyan forces moved one kilometer into the border town of Nadapal.

Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin says his ministry has started working with some countries to begin the demarcation.

“Now, we in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have started to work with some of these countries to begin the process of demarcating our borders with these countries because the AU is saying by 2017 all the African countries should finish border demarcation,” said Dr Marial.

In March, South Sudan signed an agreement with Sudan to set up a joint bank account for funding border demarcation activities.