Sudan's joint battalion of northern and southern troops will start to move into the disputed oil-rich town of Abyei on Monday, their commander has said.

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Oil war flares ... is part of a plan to defuse tension in the area after heavy clashes last month which left about 60 dead and thousands of people displaced.

President Omar al-Bashir and his southern Vice-President, Salva Kiir, agreed on the plan last week.

The crisis in Abyei has sparked fears of another civil war in the country.

The deployment of the joint battalion, led by Colonel Valentino Tokmac, is supposed to help restore security in the remote central town of Abyei.

Peace agreement

Heavy clashes between soldiers from the north and troops from the south last month devastated the area - the market was burnt to the ground, houses were destroyed and looted, and an estimated 50,000 people fled. The United Nations says at least 60 people were killed in the fighting, including some civilians.

Many fear the crisis in the disputed oil-rich town could reignite a civil war between the north and south of Sudan, three years after a fragile peace agreement was signed.

But talks between the northern National Congress Party and the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement appear to have brought both sides back from the brink.

Last week they agreed on a series of measures to defuse the situation including plans to deploy police and a joint army battalion, which is expected to take full control of the town by the end of the month.

They also agreed to find an international arbitrator to look at the unresolved issue of the boundary for the area.

The status of the oil-rich Abyei area is at the heart of a long-standing dispute between the north and south.

Both sides claim it as their own. At stake is control of a large part of the country's oil wealth.

(BBC)

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