VP Daglo chairs high level meeting on Abyei area
April 2, 2023 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council deputy head Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Daglo on Sunday chaired a meeting of the Higher Committee for Political and Administrative Oversight of Abyei area.
The meeting took place at the Republican Palace in the capital, Khartoum.
Addressing reporters in Khartoum on Sunday, the rapporteur of the committee, Dr. Mohamed Abdullah Wad-Abuk said the meeting examined the humanitarian and security situation in Abyei area and set directives related to maintaining security and stability and underscored importance of finding conducive environment for contacts between Dinka Ngok and Messairiyah tribes, adding that the political solutions shall take into consideration desires of the parties concerned with future of the area.
He further affirmed that Sudan adopted a direction to achieve responsible positive communication to make a breakthrough that enhances security and stability and calls on the Republic of South Sudan to continue joint efforts to achieve development, provide basic services and build peace.
The rapporteur pointed out that Abyei area needs to fill the governmental administrative vacuum and find an authority to communicate with the citizens, stressing the need to implement the agreement on administrative and political arrangements agreed upon between the two countries and supported by the international community for the benefit of the citizens.
In May last year, the Sudanese government announced that it reached an agreement with South Sudan to re-establish Abyei Joint Oversight Committee (AJOC) tasked with security issues in the disputed region.
Following South Sudan’s secession from neighbouring Sudan in July 2011, a Joint Peace and Security Mechanism (JPSM) was tasked by the 2012 Cooperation Agreement to oversee demilitarization of the border zone. The two sides also mandated the JPSM to oversee the security of the common border between the two countries.
Abyei is an area of 10,546 km² on the border between South Sudan and the Sudan that has been accorded “special administrative status” by the 2004 Protocol on the Resolution of the Abyei Conflict in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the Second Sudanese civil war.
(ST)