Sudan deadlock over Abyei stops thousands going home
August 14, 2007 (TORIT, Sudan) — Deadlock between Sudan’s former north-south foes over the oil-producing Abyei area is preventing thousands of people from going home after decades of civil war, a tribal chief said.
The northern National Congress Party and former southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed a peace deal two years ago which set out plans for democratic elections by 2009 and a southern referendum on secession in 2011.
The borders of the disputed Abyei region were to be decided by an independent commission and the region would also decide by 2011 whether to be in the south or north.
But the NCP rejected the commission’s report and the Abyei deadlock has continued for two years. Analysts have identified the dispute as a potential threat to the deal which ended Africa’s longest civil war.
Ngok Dinka tribal chief Kuol Deng said people were living in fear in parts of the region.
“Still there is no establishment of the (deal). The police and the rest of the security arrangements cannot be extended there, people are in fear,” he said, referring to the northern part of Abyei.
“There are about 30,000 Ngok Dinka in the Abyei area now,” said Deng, when asked how many people were still too afraid to move into the northern NCP-controlled part of Abyei.
Thousands more non-Arab Ngok Dinka have been displaced to northern Sudan and to neighbouring countries, he added.
The nomadic Arab Missirya tribe also claim land in Abyei, complicating any solution to the north-south dispute.
A senior U.N. official told Reuters that the United Nations was unable to assist people returning to Abyei until the area’s political problems were solved.
U.N. officials said peacekeepers in Abyei are often unable to patrol because of the lack of a functioning administration.
To fill the vacuum, an Abyei Administration Unit made up of a handful of civil society members was formed about a year ago. But without a budget they have been unable to do much, Deng said.
As an oil-producing area, Abyei should receive 2 percent of revenues from oil taken from the state. But no money has been seen, Deng said.
(Reuters)