Western Equatoria State map. (Courtesy).

The Congolese ambassador to South Sudan has said that a process to demarcate the border with South Sudan will start next month.

Amb Rene Ilume Tembele says a series of meetings on demarcating the border should have started last month, but the government of South Sudan requested for a delay.

Amb Rene said the two countries have strong relations, which according to him, might ease the process of the demarcation.

However, he did not speak of any disputed areas.

“We were supposed to have a meeting from 22 to 26 August 2016 in Aru, Ethuri province, Democratic Republic of Congo but the government of the Republic of South Sudan asked for a delay and asked that this meeting could take place in October,”

“We are going to sit together, to put together our efforts to see how to delimitate and demarcate our borders according to the agenda 2017 of the African Union.”

For his part, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says a technical committee has been set up to look into the matter.

Amb Mawien Makol told Eye Radio that the committee would start the discussions next week.

“We hope we will very soon decide which border will first be handled. This is going to be decided by this technical team,” Amb Makol told Eye Radio.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Juba recently summoned the Congolese Ambassador to protest what it called border limitation by Congolese authorities.

Amb Makol had said the Congolese authorities crossed into South Sudan in August to evacuate Dr Riek Machar without informing the government.

However, Amb Tembele said the former first vice President Dr Riek was evacuated by the UN.