By Our Online Team

6^th January 2012:

Sudanese President General Omar Bashir has told members of his cabinet that they should expect the “worst” in the ongoing dispute with South Sudan, The Sudan Tribune newspaper has reported.

Quoting the privately-owned al-Akhbar newspaper, which The Sudan Tribune says has close ties to the Presidency the paper said President Bashir made the remarks during the cabinet meeting which took place on the afternoon of Thursday 2^nd January.

The Sudanese leader, the paper said, was briefing his ministers about the talks he held in Addis Ababa the previous weekend with South Sudan President Salva Kiir in a meeting arranged by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and attended by Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki.

Zenawi along with the chairman of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) Thabo Mbeki tried to press Kiir and Bashir to sign an interim agreement that would reverse unilateral steps taken by Khartoum and Juba with regards to oil.

The landlocked nation of South Sudan halted export of much of its oil through the north’s pipeline to Port Sudan in a dramatic escalation of a dispute over the payment of transit fees. Juba claims Khartoum confiscated US$815 million worth of its oil.

Sudanese officials justified their move by saying that the negotiations on oil transit fees have yielded no results and that they can longer wait given their economic crisis resulting from the secession of the south.  The al-Akhbar newspaper said Bashir ended the meeting in an angry tone by saying “expect the worst with the south” before leaving.

The brief statement took the ministers by surprise according to sources that were present at the meeting.  On Friday, President Bashir had also told the Blue Nile TV in an interview that war with South Sudan is a possibility though he stressed that they will not be the ones to start it.

“…The climate now is closer to a climate of war than one of peace,” Bashir said.  “…We will not resort to the choice of war unless it is forced on us and we will not initiate the option of war because war is attrition for us and them…..it will be a war of attrition hitting them before us.” the Sudanese President added.

According to The Sudan Tribune however, some of Bahir’s military officers appear to be reluctant to go to war with South Sudan because of, as the paper put it, “…the challenges facing the army.”  END.  Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.