KHARTOUM, Rabi'II 18, 1437, January 28, 2016, SPA -- Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir ordered the opening of his country's border with South Sudan for the first time since the south's secession in 2011, state news agency SUNA reported on Wednesday, according to Reuters. "President Omar al-Bashir issued a decree today ordering the opening of borders with the state of South Sudan and ordered the relevant authorities to take all measures required to implement this decision on the ground," SUNA reported. The border was closed in 2011 when relations deteriorated after the south seceded following a long civil war, taking with it three quarters of the country's oil, estimated at 5 billion barrels of proven reserves by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. South Sudanese President Salva Kiir had unexpectedly and unilaterally announced a normalisation of relations on Tuesday in response to Bashir agreeing to cut the transit fees for South Sudanese oil crossing Sudan's territory via pipeline to the Red Sea last week. --SPA 03:23 LOCAL TIME 00:23 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w