“It is an important milestone for building good neighbourly relations between the two states,” the spokesperson added in a statement. “The Secretary-General is encouraged that the two Governments have significantly narrowed their positions on contentious issues.”

According to media reports, the two countries reached agreement this past weekend on how much South Sudan will pay to transport its crude oil through Sudan’s pipelines. South Sudan’s oil output had been shutdown earlier this year due to differences over payment rates.

In his statement, the spokesperson noted that the Secretary-General, however, regrets that the two sides have not met the 2 August deadline set by the Security Council to endorse the Roadmap put forward in a communiqué from the African Union’s Peace and Security Council at a ministerial meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in April.

The Roadmap, for implementation by both Sudan and South Sudan, aims to ease tensions, facilitate the resumption of negotiations on post-secession relations and normalize the relations between the two countries.

According to the spokesperson, Ban urges the Sudanese and South Sudanese leaders to muster the necessary political will to resolve all outstanding issues.

South Sudan became independent from Sudan in July last year, six years after the signing of the peace agreement that ended decades of warfare between the north and the south. However, the peace between the two countries has been threatened in recent months by armed clashes along their common border and outstanding post-independence issues that have yet to be resolved.

In the same statement, the spokesperson said that Secretary-General Ban commends the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) for signing, separately, the so-called Tripartite Memoranda of Understanding – with the African Union, League of Arab States and the United Nations – on humanitarian assistance to war-affected civilians in the Sudanese states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

“He [Secretary-General Ban] urges the Government of Sudan to expeditiously enable the delivery of aid to the populations concerned,” the spokesperson said.

The two Sudanese states, which lie on the border with South Sudan, have been beset by fighting between Sudanese forces and the SPLM-N since last year. The SPLM-N was previously part of the rebel movement that fought for the independence of South Sudan.

Along with food shortages, the violence has led some 170,000 Sudanese to seek refuge in South Sudan, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with more arriving every day.

The impending rainy season and logistics issues have affected the humanitarian response to their plight. Last week, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced it plans to air drop lifesaving assistance to displaced persons located in areas which have limited infrastructure.

“Hundreds of thousands of people remain trapped in the conflict zone with little access to food, water, shelter and medical services,” said Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos in a statement.

“In order to respond to these growing needs, humanitarian agencies need unimpeded and complete access to all areas. I remain especially concerned that there continues to be no access to areas controlled by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N),” she said.

Thousands of people are also crossing into neighbouring countries each day after fleeing conflict and related food shortages in Sudan and, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the number of Sudanese refugees arriving in South Sudan and Ethiopia has more than doubled since April, amounting to 200,000.

“The new arrivals are in a desperate state, with large numbers of children in urgent need of treatment for malnutrition,” Amos said.

While the Sudanese Government announced its acceptance of the Tripartite Proposal of the African Union (AU), the Arab League and the UN for the delivery of humanitarian assistance in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, the Government has laid out operational conditions that do not allow for the delivery of assistance by neutral parties in SPLM-N-controlled areas, Amos noted.

“I therefore continue to call on the Government of Sudan to deliver on its stated commitment: that assistance can reach all Sudanese people in need,” Ms. Amos said, reiterating the UN’s commitment to work with all parties to “find an acceptable solution for the immediate delivery of assistance to all people in need.”

Ms. Amos also welcomed the joint World Food Programme (WFP) and Government verification exercise that recently took place in six Government-controlled areas of South Kordofan, noting that food distribution had already begun, with the initial aim of reaching more than 100,000 people.