Council extends UN peacekeeping mission

United Nations: The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the 18,800-strong UN force monitoring a 2005 peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war between Sudan's mostly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south and urged both sides to implement all provisions.

The council vote came Wednesday, less than two weeks after Sudan faced its biggest political crisis since the end of the civil war when the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement, led by southern Vice President Salva Kiir, walked out of the government, accusing Khartoum of multiple breaches of the 2005 peace deal.

The SPLM accused the government of not sharing the country's oil wealth as agreed, not pulling troops out of southern Sudan, and remilitarising contested border zones.

Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir and Kiir have failed to bring disaffected former southern rebel ministers back into the country's unity government despite a recent reshuffle addressing their concerns, but they have pledged to continue implementing the 2005 peace agreement.

The resolution adopted Wednesday extends the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission until April 30, 2008.