The Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng summoned a senior diplomat at Sudan’s embassy in Beijing to deliver the message, the official Xinhua news agency said in a brief bulletin.

The message underscored the pressure that China faces to secure the safe return of the abducted construction workers, as did its announcement earlier on Tuesday that it had sent officials from the Foreign Ministry and other agencies to Sudan the previous day to “assist in rescue work”.

The workers’ plight has attracted widespread attention in China and any deaths could become a more serious headache for the government, which Chinese citizens assume can wield its influence to protect nationals abroad.

The abduction is the latest incident dramatising China’s difficulties with companies and workers venturing to dangerous places generally shunned by Western companies.

“The Chinese side calls on all the parties concerned to exercise calm and restraint,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Weimin, said in the statement announcing the dispatch of the team.

“Ensure the safety of Chinese personnel, and out of humanitarian considerations release them as soon as possible,” said Liu, in the statement on the ministry website (www.mfa.gov.cn).

The rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) said it took the 29 workers on Saturday for their own safety after a battle with the Sudanese army.

Since June, the Sudanese army has been fighting the SPLM-N in South Kordofan, which is in Sudan bordering the newly independent country of South Sudan.

There was initially hope that some of workers had been released, after Sudan’s state news agency said the military freed 14 of them.

But on Monday, Chinese and Sudanese officials denied the report. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said 29 of the workers remained in rebel hands while another 17 had reached safety and one was missing.

PRESSURE ON SUDAN’S GOVERNMENT

China’s ambassador to Sudan, Luo Xiaoguang, also upped the public pressure on the Sudanese government, according to the Xinhua news agency, urging authorities to find the Chinese nationals quickly.

“We hope that the Sudanese government will continue doing its utmost to bring back the missing and abducted Chinese nationals as soon as possible,” Luo said, according to Xinhua.

The evacuation of tens of thousands of Chinese workers trapped in Libya when fighting broke out there early last year also became a major news event in China. Chinese workers and engineers in Sudan were also abducted in 2004 and 2008.

China has major interests in oil and infrastructure building in Sudan and South Sudan, but those newly divided two sides are at odds over issues including oil revenues. Each accuses the other of supporting insurgencies.

China has more than 100 companies and 10,000 personnel working in both north and south Sudan, China’s then-ambassador to Khartoum, Li Chengwen, said early last year, according to Xinhua.

The abducted workers are employees of the Sinohydro Corp Ltd, which said they were building a $63.2 million road project funded by the Export-Import Bank of China, according to the People’s Daily website (www.people.com.cn).

South Kordofan is the main oil-producing state in Sudan. The SPLM is the ruling party in newly independent South Sudan, which broke off from its northern neighbour. South Sudan denies supporting SPLM-North rebels across the border.

SPLM-North is one of a number of rebel movements in underdeveloped border areas that say they are fighting to overthrow Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and end what they see as the dominance of the Khartoum political elite.

Reuters.

Le Soudan (4 points) prend la deuxième place du groupe B à la différence de buts devant l’Angola (0 contre -1) et derrière la Côte d’Ivoire (9 points), déjà qualifiée avant cette troisième journée et première équipe dans ce tournoi à réaliser un carton plein de trois victoires.

Jeune Afrique.

« Mon frère lui même était médecin, il avait été ministre au niveau régional, donc on n’a pas besoin de faire la guerre pour vivre. Mais on se bat pour la cause de notre peuple, qui n’a pas accès à l’eau potable, aux services de santé, à l’éducation. On n’a rien, et pas seulement au Darfour. Depuis l’indépendance en 1956, une petite clique qui ne représente même pas vraiment le Nord-Soudan contrôle tout ».

Gibril Ibrahim assure que le MJE va continuer sur la voie tracée par son frère, Khalil Ibrahim. L’objectif est de renverser le régime d’Omar El Béchir, car avec lui, dit-il, il n’y a pas de dialogue possible. Et aux observateurs qui pointent des divisions au sein de sa rébellion, il répond : «Il n’y a pas de risque de désintégration. Au contraire, la mort de notre leader a resserré les liens, le mouvement est plus uni que jamais, plus que jamais prêt à se battre ! En tuant Khalil, ils ont tué le processus de paix », dit encore Gibril Ibrahim, même si le MJE a lui même refusé l’an dernier de signer l’accord de paix de Doha, considérant qu’il ne s’attaquait pas aux problèmes clés du partage des richesses et des violations des droits de l’homme.

Aujourd’hui, le nouveau chef du MJE dit vouloir tendre la main à l’opposition politique et à tous les groupes rebelles à travers le Soudan.

RFI.

South Sudan took about three-quarters of Sudan’s oil output when it seceded in July, but still needs pipelines running through its northern neighbour to export its crude. The two have not agreed on a transit fee.

The new nation said on January 20 it would shut down production after Khartoum started confiscating some oil in lieu of what it said were unpaid fees.

South Sudan’s oil output — which officials last put at about 350,000 barrels per day in November — was completely shut down on Sunday, Minister of Petroleum and Mining Stephen Dhieu Dau told Reuters in Juba.

Oil is the lifeline of both countries’ economies, accounting for about 98 percent of South Sudan, one of the world’s poorest nations. China is the biggest buyer, getting about 5 percent of all its crude imports last year from Sudan, north and south.

The two countries’ presidents met on the sidelines of a meeting of East African officials in Ethiopia on Friday, but failed to resolve their differences.

COMPREHENSIVE DEAL NEEDED

“Oil production will restart when we have a comprehensive agreement and all the deals are signed. Sudan must recognise the 1956 border, which means they must give back all the areas under occupation,” he said, referring to an internal boundary used around the time of Sudan’s independence.

Sudan has already sold at least one tankerload of seized South Sudanese crude, but said on Saturday it would free other tankers to help defuse the row.

Dau said the four cargoes in question had not left the port yet, but that South Sudan’s agent said it had been told to prepare documentation so it was possible that they would leave later on Sunday or on Monday.

South Sudan was “committed to negotiations” but first Khartoum “must take some steps”, he said.

“First they must release the cargoes, and the stolen crude that was lifted by force must be returned to us, and any deal must be tied to the issues of the border and Abyei, and they must stop sponsoring militias in South Sudan,” he said.

“This deal must be overseen by the international community. We will restart operations when we agree all these issues. These issues must be resolved first.”

South Sudan’s population voted overwhelmingly to secede in a January referendum, held under the terms of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of devastating civil war between Sudan’s north and south.

Apart from oil, the two have yet to agree on issues including debt, the position of the shared boundary and control of the disputed territory of Abyei. Both sides accuse each other of backing rebels on the other side of the border.

Reuters.

“President Bashir is ready to make this gesture. Sudan is going to release the vessels detained in Port Sudan,” he told a media conference in the Ethiopian capital.

South Sudan became independent in July under a 2005 peace agreement with Khartoum that ended decades of conflict but both sides have failed to agree how to untangle their oil industries.

The new landlocked nation needs to use a northern pipeline and the port of Port Sudan to export its crude but has failed to reach an agreement with Khartoum over a transit fee, prompting Sudan to start seizing oil as compensation.

South Sudan said on Monday it had started shutting down oil production and accused Sudan of seizing $815 million worth of crude.

South Sudan’s top negotiator said on Friday his country would complete the shutdown by Saturday, after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir met on the sidelines of a meeting of East African officials in Ethiopia.

Sudan said it was freeing the ships to help end the deadlock.

“By doing this step, we expect the cover agreement to be signed, the shutdown to be halted, and the terms of the cover agreement to be respected,” said El-Khatib.

“Before the end of today, we could be able to sign the cover agreement. We, at least, are ready to sign.”

Officials said in November South Sudan was producing about 350,000 barrels of oil per day.

China is the biggest buyer of oil from the two countries, some 12.99 million barrels last year. That amounted to five percent of last year’s crude imports by China, which is also the top investor in South Sudan’s oilfields.

Reuters.

South Sudan became Africa’s newest nation in July after a 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of civil war of the mainly Muslim north and the South where most follow Christian and traditional beliefs.

More than 350,000 southerners have gone home since October 2010 after living in the north for decades but some 700,000 southerners still live in the north, according to the United Nations.

Sudan’s cabinet said it would treat southerners as foreigners from April 8, state news agency SUNA said. They would have to get residency or work permits after that, officials have said.

The United Nations has warned southerners will face legal uncertainties in the north because Juba has not yet opened an embassy that can issue passports.

Not all southerners will have left by April. Many say they want to go home but others hope to stay since they have jobs and fear unemployment in the poverty-stricken south.

Reuters.

South Sudan became independent in July under a 2005 peace deal with Khartoum that ended decades of civil war killing two million people but both sides have failed to sort out a long list of disputes.

The biggest conflict is over oil revenues — the lifeline of both economies. Land-locked South Sudan got two thirds of the country’s oil output but needs to pay fees to use northern export facilities.

Both countries have failed to agree on a transit fee but will resume on Tuesday talks sponsored by the African Union in Ethiopia. Previous rounds ended with the parties still wide apart.

Sudan has started confiscating southern oil to compensate for Juba’s failure pay a fee to use Khartoum’s pipeline and the Red Sea port of Port Sudan, members of the northern delegation for the talks in Addis Abeba said.

South Sudan pumps around 350,000 barrels per day (bpd), officials have said. Sudan produces 115,000 bpd in its remaining fields but needs it entirely for domestic consumption.

“Since early December we’ve started taking part of our share after the southern government refused to agree on a deal for a transit fee,” Saber Mohammed Hassan, a member of the delegation, told reporters.

He said Khartoum was now demanding a pipeline fee of $36 a barrel, up from an initial demand of $32.

Delegation member Zubair Ahmed Hassan added Khartoum was taking some southern oil to use for northern refineries but gave no volumes.

South Sudan has accused Khartoum of blocking oil exports of 3.4 million barrels in Port Sudan and asking foreign oil firms to divert some oil to refineries in Khartoum and El-Obeid.

In a second demand, Khartoum wants Juba to pay a total of $1 billion for transit fees since July, said deputy central bank governor Badr el-Din Mahmoud, another delegate.

He said South Sudan also owed Khartoum another $6 billion in debt. “The South has sent us a letter demanding $5 billion but this amount is not correct. We actually demand from the South $6 billion,” he said.

Sudan’s government is under pressure to overcome a severe economic crisis after losing the southern oil which made up 90 percent of the country’s exports. It generated $5 billion in oil revenues in 2010.

“The national economy cannot do without oil,” said Idris Mohamed Abdul-Qadir, head of Khartoum’s delegation.

South Sudan has refused to shoulder Sudan’s foreign debt pile of almost $40 billion which has been a burden for the economy for many years in addition to a U.S. trade embargo deterring most Western firms.

NO COMPROMISE IN SIGHT

South Sudan has accused Khartoum of “stealing” its oil exports at the northern port of Port Sudan by ordering its security services to load 650,000 bpd of southern oil worth $65 million on a Sudanese tanker.

“The Government of Sudan has chosen to steal this oil in broad daylight just days before its own proposed commercial oil negotiations with the Republic of South Sudan,” South Sudan’s oil minister Stephen Dhieu Dau said in a statement on Saturday.

He said the oil pipeline would be closed within days since storage capacity was filling up in Port Sudan but Azhari Abdalla, director general of Sudan’s Oil Exploration and Production Administration, dismissed this.

“What I can confirm from our side is we will not close any line. It will stay open. You can take this for granted,” he told Reuters.

South Sudan’s top negotiator Pagan Amum said on Sunday oil companies had sent a letter to Khartoum verifying that South Sudan has paid for the use of oil infrastructure in Sudan since July.

“This letter makes it clear that the government of Sudan has no basis to demand any payment from the government of South Sudan because it has been paying and we cannot pay twice,” Amum told reporters in the southern capital Juba.

But northern delegate Zubair said since Sudan owned the pipeline it needed to be paid directly by Juba, not via companies.

Reuters.

Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on genocide charges, arrived in Libya on Saturday.

Asked on Sunday if he was worried he might be arrested and handed over to the ICC, he answered: “By God, No.”

“Not in Libya, I am ready to move around Libya without security guards.”

During the visit, Bashir has stressed the need to protect Libya’s southern borders, which he said former dictator Muammar Gaddafi used to smuggle weapons to rebels in Sudan.

“We don’t want borders for exchanging weapons, rebels and mercenaries,” Bashir told a gathering of Sudanese nationals and Libyan officials in the eastern city of Benghazi.

He said Sudan supported diplomatic efforts between Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) and the North African country’s neighbours, including Chad, Niger and Mali, to secure borders.

“We want to support these contacts so we can turn Libya’s borders with the rest of region’s states into a venue for trade and the movement of citizens,” he said.

NTC Vice Chairman Abdul Hafiz Ghoga confirmed the government was holding discussions on the issue with Sudan and other nations.

“We are working hard on protecting our borders with our neighbours,” he said.

Relations between Khartoum and Tripoli were strained during Gaddafi’s rule because of the dictator’s support for rebels in Sudan’s western Darfur region and in South Sudan, which gained independence in July under a 2005 peace deal.

Bashir said Sam-7 anti-aircraft missiles had been smuggled to the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement during Libya’s nine-month civil war. He said the missiles posed no danger as they had been stored without proper maintenance.

Bashir said on Saturday he had offered the new Libyan government help from Sudanese troops in protecting Libya’s southern borders during the war that ousted Gaddafi, but that his offer had been declined.

Liby and and U.S. officials have said they want to prevent militants from acquiring weapons, especially thousands of anti-aircraft launchers, from Gaddafi’s huge arsenals.

Reuters.

But very thin trading in the first session of the electronic system — a gift from Oman — highlighted the need to overhaul regulations and transparency.

None of the 40 stocks listed on the display in the new trading room moved in the first 45 minutes. Trading focused as always on government-issued Islamic bonds, known as shahamas, which changed hands for 114,036 Sudanese pounds.

“I think the new electronic system will improve transparency and provide more information so volumes will rise much,” said Taha Hussein Yousif, General Manager at local broker HH Stock Exchange Co.

“But we also need more regulation and information on companies. We need a new security law,” he said.

He said there was interest in large firms such as telecoms Sudatel or Islamic banks such as Faisal Islamic Bank but with little corporate information on other firms overall liquidity was thin.

Altayeb Musawi Shaigoog, legal expert at the Muscat partner bourse, said the new system was a big step forward to give access to other exchanges and allow more cross listings.

“They now need to develop regulations, the primary market with IPOs and have solid companies,” he said.

Officials hope the bourse will attract more investment as the country seeks to overcome a severe economic crisis after losing two-thirds of its oil production to South Sudan.

“This is the beginning of new era. God willing, there will be also trading with gold, minerals and real estate,” said the stock exchange’s general manager Osman Hamad Khair.

The Khartoum bourse is small by international standards with a market capitalisation of just around $2.1 billion. Up to 90 percent of trading is in shahamas because they are guaranteed by the central bank.

The government is in the process of overhauling an existing securities law that dates back to 1994 but no decisions have been made yet.

Reuters.

“We have an experience in integrating rebels in a national army,” said Bashir, whose visit to Libya drew criticism from human rights groups.

“We have offered to help our brothers in Libya in building a national army that includes the components of the Libyan revolution. Our experts are available and our officers are available,” he said.

Bashir also said he had offered the new Libyan government help from Sudanese troops in protecting Libya’s southern borders during the war that ended Muammar Gaddafi’s rule but that his offer was declined.

Libya’s new rulers are struggling to include thousands of former rebels who helped oust Gaddafi in a military and police force or in civilian jobs.

Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, warned this week that Libya risks sliding into civil war unless it cracks down on rival militias which filled the vacuum left by Gaddafi’s downfall.

The militias are vying with each other for influence, and believe that to ensure they receive their due share of political power they need to keep an armed presence in the capital.

Abdul Jalil, who visited Khartoum in November, has said Sudanese weapons and ammunition helped Libya’s former rebels oust Muammar Gaddafi last year and take control of the North African country.

Relations between Khartoum and Tripoli were strained during Gaddafi’s rule because of his support for rebels in Sudan’s western Darfur region and in South Sudan, which gained independence in July under a 2005 peace deal.

Bashir said that the ousting of Gaddafi was “the best piece of news in Sudan’s modern history.”

“We came here to thank the Libyan people for the gift they offered to the Sudanese people by removing Gaddafi,” he said.

RIGHTS GROUPS’ CRITICISM

Bashir’s visit was criticised by rights groups.

“Welcoming Bashir … raises questions about the NTC’s stated commitment to human rights and the rule of law,” Richard Dicker, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

“Following the end of decades of brutal rule in Libya, it is disturbing if Tripoli hosts a head of state on the run from international arrest warrants for grave human rights violations.”

Mohammed al-Keelani, who heads a group of 50 Libyan civil society organisations, said Bashir was not welcome in Libya.

“For us, Omar al-Bashir is the Gaddafi of Sudan,” he said. “We have reservations against this visit because he’s a tyrant who oppresses his people and his policy contradicts our principles.”

Bashir is under increasing pressure at home after his country lost much of its oil production to the south.

Reuters.