Mikhail Margelov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for cooperation with African countries, has met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to discuss security cooperation, Margelov said.

“The Sudanese president assured me that the situation at all country borders is stable, although it is impossible to fully close the border at certain sections in the desert,” Margelov told RIA Novosti after the meeting.

According to the special envoy, al-Bashir said border control is effective with the use of joint Sudanese, Chadian and Libyan border guard forces, but did not rule out that transport with Libyan weapons may pass via Sudan’s territory.

As for Sudan’s tense relations with South Sudan, they were softened on September 27, when the two countries signed agreements on cooperation in security, oil production, trade, and rights, and agreed to create a buffer zone between them.

South Sudan became independent from Sudan in July 2011, six years after the countries signed a peace deal ending decades of warfare between them. But armed clashes along their common border and remaining post-independence issues like security and oil have threatened the fragile peace.