Khartoum, June 06: President Omar al-Beshir said on Saturday he will give they key oil ministry in his next government to a member of the ex-rebel South Sudan People’s Liberation Army.
But Beshir, who last week dissolved the government after his re-election victory in April, said he would strip the SPLM of the foreign ministry which would go to someone loyal to his National Congress party.
“We have decided to give the SPLM the oil ministry,” Beshir said during a meeting with members of his ruling party.
“They will also have 30 percent of seats in parliament and will keep all the portfolios they had (in the outgoing government) except the foreign ministry,” he added. He did not elaborate.
Sudan produces 500,000 barrels of oil per day and has reserves estimated at six billion barrels, most of it on the border between north and south and how to share the revenues has been a major source of tension in the run-up to a promised referendum on southern independence due in January.
The ex-rebel SPLM joined the government after signing with the Khartoum government in 2005 a peace deal that ended a devastating civil war that lasted more than two decades.
Beshir was sworn in last month after emerging as the winner in April elections.
In the government he dissolved on May 30, a southerner headed the foreign ministry while the oil ministry was in northern hands. Beshir did not say who would be the next foreign minister.
—Agencies