Aid groups rush to help Abyei’s displaced
May 30, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — International aid groups are rushing to provide assistance to tens of thousands of Sudanese civilians displaced by fighting in the disputed oil-rich Abyei area before seasonal rains hamper aid flows, aid groups said.
Civilians fled the central town of Abyei during over a week of clashes between northern and southern troops earlier in May, prompting fears of further conflict just at the onset of the rainy season.
Aid workers said rain had already been falling for the past week around Abyei, and expected to have to provide food aid and shelter to the displaced through the rainy season, if not longer.
“I don’t think there is any immediate return at the moment to Abyei. Obviously if people want to go back to Abyei they will. But all returns have to be voluntary,” said Orla Clinton, spokeswoman for the U.N. office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“Having talked with people in Abyei, their main concern is that peace prevails. But today, it doesn’t look likely that they will be moving at the moment. People will wait and see,” she added.
The World Food Programme had handed out close to 220 tonnes of food aid, although rain has disrupted some distribution, OCHA said. Aid workers were drilling wells and installing pumps to provide water to the displaced and monitoring their health.
Aid groups were also sending truckloads of non-food aid such as medical supplies, tents, blankets and plastic sheeting.
Northern and southern leaders have blamed each other for starting the fighting that left more than 20 northern soldiers and an unknown number of southerners dead.
WORKING FIGURE OF 50,000 DISPLACED
The International Organisation for Migration said 50,000 to 60,000 people had fled to Agok, 25 km south of Abyei, and neighbouring villages, while another 10,000 were believed to have walked south toward the town of Turalei.
OCHA said it had counted nearly 27,000 people displaced so far from Abyei, according to a preliminary headcount, but was still counting in some areas. It said humanitarian agencies were working on the basis that there were 50,000 people displaced.
“Despite the insecurity and logistical challenges, IOM aims to provide as much assistance as possible before the rainy season sets in,” Nelson Bosch, a senior IOM official in Khartoum, said in a statement. He said the IOM urgently needed $2 million to deliver the necessary aid.
Both the north and the south covet Abyei, which is close to oilfields that produce up to a half of Sudan’s daily 500,000-barrel output, and have remained at loggerheads over its boundary and administration.
Pagan Amum, secretary general of the southern former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, said on Monday that Sudan was on the brink of a fresh civil war following the clashes.
U.S. special envoy for Sudan, Richard Williamson, flew to the southern capital of Juba on Friday for talks with south Sudan’s President Salva Kiir that were expected to touch on the implementation of a 2005 north-south peace deal.
The borders of the region were left undecided the peace agreement that ended two decades of civil war fought along ethnic, religious and ideological lines and complicated by oil. The deal gave south Sudan semi-autonomous status and created a coalition north-south government.
(Reuters)