Haile Menkerios, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, told Mr. Ban that both Governments had instructed oil companies to begin producing, transporting and exporting oil from South Sudan through Sudan.

The Secretary-General commended both Governments for their determination to implement their agreements and reaffirmed the UN’s readiness to assist the parties in this endeavour.

Read more here.

South Sudan will be able to resume oil production within three weeks and export no more than a week after that, the oil minister said on Tuesday, after the country reached deals on border security with Sudan on Friday.

Speaking to reporters after returning from Addis Ababa, South Sudan's Petroleum and Mining Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau said there were few technical barriers to resuming oil output.

"We assume that we will resume as soon as possible," he said, adding it would not take more than three weeks to be able to resume output and no more than 28 days for it to reach the export terminal in Port Sudan.

However, it did not set a date for determining the final status of Abyei, a disputed territory that has been a perennial source of tension between the two sides. An administration and council for the area would be set up by March 17, it said.

Interior ministers from both countries also planned to meet on March 17 to discuss ways of opening up border crossings and easing the movement of citizens between the two countries, 

Read more here.

Sudanese Defense Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein (L) talks to his South Sudan counterpart John Kong Nyuon (R), as former South African President Thabo Mbeki (C) looks on.South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has ordered his country's army to pull out of a buffer zone area on the border with Sudan as agreed at African Union-brokered talks, South Sudan's army spokesman said on Monday, March 11.  

The agreement, if adhered to, would be a major step toward resuming oil exports from landlocked South Sudan through pipelines in Sudan, which Juba shut off during a row over fees more than a year ago. Read more here.

Two Human Rights Leaders Inspire

Audience in Rochester NY

John Prendergast, world renowned co-founder of The Enough Project and Salva Dut, founder of Water for South Sudan, shared a stage at Monroe Community College in Henrietta NY, near Rochester on March 4th 2013. The event was part of a day-long set of activities sponsored by The Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Project, a student organization based at the College.

Prendergast engaged the audience to identify their personal "enough moment" - that moment that inspires a person to take action of whatever sort to make to a difference in the world. Using self-effacing humor and anecdotes, Prendergast offered a 10 point checklist of how to turn that enough moment into effective action. He noted that an individual acting alone is limited in what he or she can do. But acting together with others, even a few like-minded, committed people can make a movement that drives change for local or even global impact that helps others. He urged the audience to identify what and where they can help and get started, citing Salva and Water for South Sudan as an example of local action with global impact.

Prior to Prendergast's talk, Salva thanked the audience for how the people of Rochester, along with thousands of other Water for South Sudan supporters in 49 states, Canada, the UK, Australia and Singapore, have made a difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese. He then gave an overview of South Sudan's progress and challenges as the newest nation in the world, comparing the country to a new-born baby that needs help and encourgement which takes time until it can stand on its own.

Dut came for the event and other activities from South Sudan where he now lives and works year round, overseeing the South Sudan operations of the organization he founded.

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir shakes hands with Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn as he arrives for talks with leaders from Sudan in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa January 4.South Sudan

Sudan leader Omar Hassan al-Bashir and South Sudan's Salva Kiir met in Ethiopia January 5 & 6 to try to quell tensions that have rumbled since a flare-up of violence along the disputed border in April last year.

South Sudan's chief negotiator Pagan Amum said Juba and Khartoum had agreed to start establishing the buffer zone and another round of talks was set for Saturday in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Read more here.

According to a presidential adviser the letter provides detailed plans of how the government of the Republic of South Sudan intends to end deadlocks over post secession issues.

"We are committed to implementing it. We do not want to betray our partners, especially those supporting resumption of improved bilateral relations to promote the idea of two 'viable states'," Mawien stressed in a statement to Sudan Tribune on Saturday.  Read more here.

On October 10, in their first high-profile appearance together since signing the deals, ministers from the two countries told an investment conference in Vienna they would work to make peace.  Read more here.

In other news, on October 7 Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir ordered land and river border crossings with South Sudan reopened, official radio said, a sign that perhaps tensions are easing between the neighbors.  Read more here.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, left, and South Sudan President Salva Kiir, right, shake hands on the completion of a signing ceremony after the two countries reached a deal on economic and security agreements in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Sept. 27, 2012.

The leaders of the two neighbouring countries made the partial breakthrough on September 27 after four days of talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

But a number of key issues remain unresolved, including disputed regions.  World leaders are welcoming the cooperation agreements signed by Sudan and South Sudan, and urging the sides to keep working to resolve other disputes.  Read more here.

The two countries have agreed on how much South Sudan should pay to export its oil through northern pipelines, ending a dispute that led to the shutdown in January of South Sudan’s output of 350,000 barrels per day.  Oil is the lifeline of the economies of both Sudan and South Sudan.   Read more here.