The border region of Abyei has been contested since South Sudan gained independence in 2011. (Courtesy).

South Sudan and Sudan resumed talks on the status of the disputed Abyei region, in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Sunday.

This talks commence a month after the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei warned of an increased movement of armed elements in parts of the area.

The delegation from South Sudan is headed by Presidential Security Advisor Tut Gatluak while Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the Deputy President of the Sudan Sovereign Council is leading the Sudanese team.

In his remark, Tut Gatluak said although is not difficult for the two nations to reach an agreement on the final status of Abyei.

“We know the journey is too long but is not that too difficult now for us to reach to an agreement,” he said.

‘With the same efforts we put in during the talks of Sudan peace and the great role we played during the implementation of the Juba agreement, we do the same till we reach to the final status of Abyei.”

On his part, General Dagalo, the head of the Abyei Committee on the Sudanese side said the country’s political crisis has not impeded his government commitment to resolution of the status of Abyei.

“You know the critical situation that Sudan is going through at this time, but this situation cannot stop us to join you today in this joint meeting, because of the sensitivity of the case of the area and the humanitarian suffering of its people there is a priority for us.”

The disputed Abyei region has increasingly become volatile in recent years with rampant attacks by militia groups from the Sudanese Arab militia group – the Misseryia and raids on the southern border with Warrap.

Under the terms of the Abyei Protocol, which was part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), Abyei was declared, on an interim basis, a simultaneously part of Sudan’s West Kordofan State and Northern Bahr el Ghazal State in South Sudan.

South Sudan and Sudan are tasked under the same framework to organize a referendum to determine the permanent status of the region.