UN extends Sudan's north-south peacekeeping mission another year
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council is extending for another year the U.N. mission in Sudan that backs up the 2005 agreement ending the north-south civil war.
The council's 15 members voted unanimously Thursday to keep the mission known as UNMIS going until April 30, 2011 "with the intention to renew it" again.
A referendum is expected to be held early next year to determine whether the south secedes from Sudan and the future of the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei.
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The Abyei issue threatened to derail the peace agreement in Sudan that ended two decades of civil war between the north and south that killed at least 2 million people.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern there has been "little concrete progress" toward preparing for the referendum.