The Sudanese ministry of foreign affairs announced that Sudan will conduct shuttle diplomacy to contain the damage of the coming secession of south Sudan.
Khalid Musa, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, emphasized that the main goal is to limit the “negative” consequences of south Sudan’s secession on North Sudan.
The secondary goal is to reduce the “foreign presence” in Sudan. This foreign presence is comprised of both the AU-UN Hybrid Peacekeeping Mission Darfur (UNAMID) and the UN Mission to Sudan (UNMIS).
The UNMIS, with 11,000 staff members, was created to oversee the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The CPA finished nearly twenty years of intermittent civil wars between south and north Sudan.
The eight year old conflict in the Sudanese region of Darfur caused the creation of UNAMID. This is the world’s largest peacekeeping mission with 20,000 soldiers who try to restore peace to Darfur. Approximately 300,000 people have died there since it began in 2003.