At a summit meeting, in Addis Ababa (January 4th - 5th) the Presidents of Sudan and South Sudan agreed to implement several outstanding agreements relating to Abyei, to cooperation and to disputed areas along their border.

The President of the Republic of Sudan, Omer Hassan al-Bashir, and the President of the Republic of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, at the invitation of Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam, met to discuss the implementation of the agreements signed between the two countries at a meeting in Addis Ababa in September of last year.

Following the meetings on Friday and Saturday (January 4th and 5th ), the Chairman of the African Union High Level Implementation Panel mediating the negotiations between the two sides, Thabo Mbeki, released a statement announcing agreement on the establishment of Abyei Area Administration, Abyei Area Council and the Abyei Area Police Service.

According to the AU report on the outcome of the summit, the AUHIP will take responsibility for the drawing up of "a Matrix with timeframes, for the speedy, unconditional and coordinated implementation of all agreements" by Sunday, January 13th.

The two sides also agreed that the work of the Joint Committee on the establishment of demilitarized zone would resume without delay. Finally, President Salva Kiir took the opportunity to reiterate that the directives he had issued prior to independence addressing the disengagement between the SPLM and the SPLM-N had been carried out.