W. Bahr el Ghazal delivers food assistance to Abyei administration

By Ngor Arol Garang

March 16, 2011 (ABYEI) – The government of southern state of Western Bahr el Ghazal on Wednesday officially handed over a variety of food items to the administration of the contested north-south border region of Abyei.

The relief assistance is intended to support operational demands of the Abyei administration and other vulnerable groups affected by the recent past clashes involving local police and armed members of the Missiriya tribe, who the South claim are backed up by Khartoum’s the Sudan Armed Forces.

Abyei has been in turmoil since a referendum on the future of the oil-producing region failed to go ahead in January. South Sudan’s plebiscite on independence went ahead resulting in a massive vote for independence.

The South will now become independent in July but the future of Abyei is far from clear. The regions referendum would have decided whether the contested region remained as part of the north or joined what will now be a newly independent Republic of South Sudan.

The ruling parties of north and South have failed to agree on who could take part in the poll and have, so far failed to find a political solution or agreement to resolve the issue.

The main stumbling block is Khartoum’s demand that the Misseriya, Arab cattle herders, who enter the region for a few months each year and the southern aligned Dinka Ngok ethnic group. The SPLM who govern the South, maintain that the Dinka Ngok are the only eligible voters.

Violence between the Misseriya and the mainly Dinka Ngok police and security forces has spiked in recents weeks displacing thousands and increasing the strain on Abyei’s administration and humanitarian operations in the area.

The southern state of Western Bahr el Ghazal on Wednesday provided 35 tons of different food items including white flour, sugar, maize flour, biscuits and tea were delivered together with 200 full tanks of fuel to the Abyei administration in a public ceremony officiated by Kuol Monyluak, head of agriculture department on behalf of Abyei chief administrator, Deng Arop Kuol.

Speaking at the handing over ceremony in Abyei’s Freedom Square, Effessio Kon Uguak, deputy governor and a minister of local government in Western Bahr el Ghazal state, pledged the readiness of his administration and people of Western Bahr el Ghazal in general to stand and support people of Abyei and their administration to achieve their aspirations.

He said Abyei is the gateway and leg of South Sudan. “If there are people who think Abyei is not part of South Sudan, they need to be told right away that it is the gateway and leg of south Sudan”, said Uguak. He emphasized his point by adding that it would take him four hours less to travel to Abyei than someone traveling from Khartoum.

Uguak described the Misseriya as nomads and said that they did not have any single right to claim in the area. “The so called Missiriya are just [a] nomadic group who do not have any single right to claim in Abyei. They are nomadic group who do not have permanent residence”, he said.

The senior member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in the state of Western Bahr el Ghazal accused Khartoum based government of deceiving the Misseriya to fight an unjustified war. The Misseriya should know this”, he said.

Speaking at the same occasion, Kamil Wana, a political advisor in the government of Western Bahr el Ghazal state, said people of Western Bahr el Ghazal and Abyei are one and the same citizens of greater Bahr el Ghazal. He said the whole South Sudan is behind Abyei and that those who think Abyei will not get support from the south are wrong.

The Dinka Ngok are a strand of the Dinka tribe, the largest ethnic group in South Sudan. Many of the SPLM leadership are Dinka and hold Abyei as a high priority.

(ST)