The leaders of Sudan and South Sudan reached a security deal on Wednesday that will restart badly needed oil exports, but failed to solve the other main conflicts left over when Africa's largest country split last year.
The deal, reached after more than three weeks of negotiations, will throw both economies a lifeline. It should for now prevent any resumption of the kind of fighting that broke out along the border in April.
But the neighbors still deeply distrust each other and have a history of failing to implement agreements.
Faced with the threat of UN sanctions and economic collapse, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir agreed after four days of summit talks to set up a demilitarized border buffer zone.
The deal will allow landlocked South Sudan to resume oil exports through Sudan, providing both battered economies with dollars. The south had shut down its entire 350,000 barrels a day of output in January after the countries argued about transit fees.
Despite pressure from the African Union, as well as the US and other Western countries, the two sides failed to settle the fate of at least five disputed oil-producing regions along the border.
Tensions over the unmarked 1,800 kilometers of common border spilled over into fighting in April, when South Sudan's army briefly occupied the Heglig oilfield, vital to Sudan's economy. "We will talk about the claimed areas in future talks," El-Obeid Morawah, spokesman for Sudan's foreign ministry said.
The neighbors were also unable to reach a solution for the border region of Abyei, which has symbolic significance to both and is rich in grazing lands. Plans for a referendum have failed over the question of who should participate.
"The African Union will decide on a final solution," Atif Keir, spokesman for the southern delegation, said.
It will take several months to restart southern oil production as the export pipelines were filled with water to prevent them becoming blocked, and some fields were damaged during fighting.
The UN Security Council had set a September 22 deadline for a broad deal to end hostilities but that was informally extended until the end of the Addis Ababa summit.
The African Union even postponed a signing ceremony for the border security deal at the last minute on Wednesday to make a last push for at least some agreement on Abyei, but to no avail.
The border deal provides for both armies to pull back 10 kilometers from the frontier. Special arrangements will be made for a strategic strip of land called Mile-14, which is important to Arab tribes allied to Sudan.
Reuters