20120602
AFP
A Sudanese police contingent has pulled out of the disputed Abyei area, Sudan's army said on Friday, after the foreign ministry denied their presence and the UN called for their withdrawal.

"This evening the 169 police redeployed outside of Abyei administration area," Sawarmi Khaled Saad, the Sudanese army spokesman, was quoted as saying by the official SUNA news agency.

"Now Abyei is free from any Sudanese military or police."

The UN Security Council on Thursday demanded that Sudan withdraw its armed police from Abyei amid warnings there is still "hair-trigger" tension between the Khartoum government and South Sudan.

The Security Council's demand came after UN chief Ban Ki-moon and South Sudan urged Khartoum to complete its pullout.

Ban welcomed the "full withdrawal" on Tuesday of the Sudan Armed Forces from the Abyei area, but he called on the Sudanese government to withdraw "all remaining armed police forces," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Diplomatic sources said the army pullout involved about 300 troops.

Sudan was "deceiving the world, saying that they have withdrawn their forces," South Sudan's chief negotiator Pagan Amum said Thursday in Addis Ababa where the two countries are holding their first talks since coming to the brink of all-out war in April.

After fighting along the disputed border in March and April, the Security Council called on the two sides to cease hostilities and resume talks on a number of issues, including the status of Abyei, the most sensitive matter left unresolved before South Sudan's independence last July.

The council's May 2 resolution said both sides had to pull their forces out of Abyei by May 16. South Sudan complied, withdrawing police who were based there, while Sudan pulled its army out after the deadline.

"We didn't have any police at all inside Abyei area, now or in the past," foreign ministry spokesman Al-Obeid Meruh told AFP on Thursday. "We only have an army, which we have withdrawn. And we are committed to what we have announced."