Juba accuses SAF of violating its sovereignty

South Sudan's Information Minister, Barnaba Marial Benjamin has revealed that a growing numbers of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have gathered on the border of his country with Sudan, in the states of Northern Bahr el Ghazal and the oil-rich Upper Nile state, in a violation of the country’s sovereignty. In a press conference held in Juba, the minister called on the United Nations and the African Union to urge Khartoum to abide by the agreements signed between the two countries, he also called on the international community to bear its responsibilities towards the peace process, and reiterated his country's commitment to all the terms of the Addis Ababa agreement, signed recently between Sudan and South Sudan. The spokesman of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), Colonel Philip Aguer, told Arabstoday that 17 civilian farmers were abducted from their farms in Renk County of northern part of Upper Nile state this week, by SAF and were taken across the border to White Nile state in Sudan where they are being held hostage. Meanwhile, the Sudanese Defence Minister General Abdul Rahim Mohamed Hussein said, "the next round of talks between his country and the state of South Sudan in Addis Ababa will adopt new mechanisms to address issues of disengagement between Southern Sudan and the rebels in the states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan, in addition to stopping the support of armed movements and find solutions to them."