Fresh clashes in Abyei kill 5 on Wednesday

By Ngor Arol Garang

June 15, 2011 (JUBA) – Officials from the government of South Sudan and members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) on Wednesday said at least five North Sudan soldiers have been killed in clashes in the contested border region of Abyei.

South Sudan said seven of their soldiers had sustained minor injuries as the fighting took place less than a month before Sudan’s South separates from the North on July 9.

The leadership of North and South Sudan have been unable to reach an agreement to enable a referendum to determine if Abyei’s future or come to a political agreement. In May the North’s Sudan Armed Forces occupied the region in response to attacks on two of their convoys by southern armed groups.

Miyen Alor Kuol, an SPLM official told Sudan Tribune from in Wau in Western Bahr el Ghazal State that renewed fighting has taken place in the area. He said that five Sudan Armed Forces soldiers were killed after falling into ambush.

“A successful fighting took place today. It is successful fighting because none of our soldiers was killed. We only had people who sustained slight injuries. They all fell into an ambush of our soldiers resulting into the shooting and killing of five members of their soldiers”, said Kuol.

He said seven soldiers from the South’s army – the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) – sustained injuries. “On the side of our soldiers none of them was killed as I have said earlier. Only seven of them sustained minor injuries”, explained Kuol.

Colonel Dominic Deng Kuoc Malek, Commissioner of Twic County, Warrap State, told Sudan Tribune that fighting had broken out in three different places in the south of Abyei.

“Yes there was a fighting in which seven of our soldiers sustained slight injuries. They have been brought to Mayen Abun this afternoon”, the Twic County Commissioner said.

The senior official explained that the armed forces started exchanging fire at around 9:00am. The clash finished by 2:30pm he said.

NO DEAL ON TROOP WITHDRAWAL

South Sudan Tuesday rejected any conditions being put on the withdrawal of the northern troops form the contested region of Abyei on the North-South border.

Tensions are rising between as the oil-producing South prepares to separate from the North on July 9. Sudan’s President and his Southern counterpart met under the auspices of the African Union this week to try and resolve the dispute.

However, despite media reports to the contrary the talks failed to secure the withdrawal of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) from Abyei and the deployment of Ethiopian troops under the existing UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan.

Upon return from Addis Ababa, where the talks were held, on Tuesday a South Sudan official told Sudan Tribune that the Northern government had demanded that they be able to keep a battalion of SAF soldiers in the region.

The Khartoum controlled SAF took control of Abyei on May 21 using tanks, heavy military weapons and aerial bombardments prior to moving into the town.

Cirino Hiteng, a minister in the office of South Sudan president told a press briefing that talks between the leaders of the National Congress Party (NCP) in Khartoum and South Sudan’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) had failed.

“The talks began on Sunday and resumed on Monday without success. The National Congress Party, particularly [Sudan’s] President [Bashir] is connecting withdrawal of the Sudan Armed Forces from Abyei to an agreement. The National Congress Party wants a brigade of the Sudan Armed Force to remain behind in Abyei when other forces withdraw. They demands equal representation in the administration of the area. They also demanded that the chief administrator should come from them. This is unacceptable”, said the minister

The senior SPLM official said the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit with entire leadership of the SPLM rejected the NCPs demands and demanded an unconditional withdrawal of the northern forces in the area.

“We made our position clear. The Sudan Armed Forces must withdraw from Abyei without any condition. The Abyei administration must be reinstated and a neutral force be deployed to the area until the final and political settlement is reached. We do not see any reason for which the administration of Abyei should be shared let alone demand for chief administrator from the National Congress Party”, the minister said on Tuesday.

The military take over of Abyei generated an international outcry and subsequent demands put pressure on the government of Sudan to consider immediate withdrawal of the Sudan Armed Forces from the area. There are fears that the are could be a flashpoint to a trigger another full scale war.

South, which is less than a month from achieving independence from the North, has said it will not go to war over Abyei. The region voted to separate in a referendum agreed as part of a 2005 peace deal between the former warring parties.

The agreement also granted the people of Abyei the similar right to simultaneously hold a referendum to decide whether to remain part of South Kordofan province in central Sudan, or return to the South in Bahr el Ghazal region from where they were transferred in 1905. However, the referendum in Abyei was not held following disagreements between the two parties over formation of the referendum commission and definition of the voter eligibility.

While the south voted overwhelmingly in favor of secession from the North, in January 2011, the Misseriya tribe launched an attack on the area following reports that the local inhabitants of Abyei predominantly the Dinka Ngok chiefdom, were planning to unilaterally attempt to join South Sudan. Officials in Abyei deny this.

The NCP want the Misseriya to be able to vote. The SPLM reject this saying that the Misseriya, who enter the region with their cattle for a few months each year, are not residents of the area.

(ST)