South Sudan embraces old enemy Sudan, now rocked by protests

South Sudan’s oil minister Ezekiel Lul (right) and his Sudan counterpart Abel Qader (left) arrive for a ceremony to mark the restart of crude oil pumping at the Unity oil field in South Sudan on January 21. [Reuters]

Embattled Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is receiving words of support from some unlikely places as he faces deadly protests calling for him to step down.

South Sudan won independence from Sudan in 2011 following decades of brutal fighting marked by the mass abduction and enslavement of children, scorched earth ethnic cleansing and famines.