Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

SUDAN: Abyei briefing
21 Jul 2009 15:21:53 GMT
 Source: IRIN

Background

•  Israeli-Palestinian conflict

•  South Sudan fragile peace

•  Sudan conflicts

MORE >>
NAIROBI, 21 July 2009 (IRIN) - What is Abyei?

An oil-rich area straddling the border between north and south Sudan, jutting into the states of Western Kordofan and Northern Bahr al-Gazal. Since 2005 it should have been administered jointly by the ruling parties of Northern and Southern Sudan. During the 1983-2005 civil war both sides used local communities as proxy forces.

What is the Abyei Protocol?

A chapter of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) (http://www.sudanarchive.net/cgi-bin/sudan?e=-----1025-10-1-0-Abyei&a=d&d=Dl1d36.2, which provides for a referendum in 2011 when Abyei will decide whether to join the north or the south, and for a joint administration until then. The protocol outlines how the region's oil revenue is shared between the Northern Government of National Unity (GNU) and the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) and enshrines the grazing rights of Misseriya pastoralists who live to the north of Abyei. It also tasked an Abyei Boundaries Commission to "define and demarcate" the area, whose borders are disputed by north and south.

Chapter IV of the CPA states that the people who live in Abyei permanently are of the Ngok section of the Dinka ethnic group. Arab communities, including the Misseriya, traditionally move through the area at certain seasons with their livestock for pasture, water and trade, meaning that the two communities regularly interact – and have clashed in the past.

What is the role of the Permanent Court of Arbitration?

The commission's "final and binding" ruling http://www.sudanarchive.net/cgi-bin/sudan?a=d&d=Dl1d18, issued in July 2005, determined that Abyei was much larger than the northern government claimed. Abyei's size matters because it affects how much oil is apportioned to the area and because in a referendum scheduled for 2011, Abyei's residents are likely to vote to join Southern Sudan's administration. The GNU rejected the ruling by insisting the commission had exceeded its mandate.

Both sides agreed that an Abyei Arbitration Tribunal, sitting at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, should decide whether this assertion was valid and by extension whether the commission's boundaries remained in force. They further agreed that if the court found the commission had exceeded its mandate, the court should make a fresh ruling on Abyei's boundaries based on submissions by both parties.

Why is it so important to resolve the dispute?

The 1972 Addis Ababa peace agreement, which ended the first civil war (1956-1972), also included provisions for a referendum among the Abyei Ngok Dinka on whether or not to join what was then a semi-autonomous Southern Region. Failure to implement those provisions was a factor in the re-ignition of civil war in the early 1980s.

It has remained a hotbed of tension since the CPA was signed: in May 2008 clashes displaced tens of thousands of people in Abyei and the town was set on fire. Failure to properly implement the Abyei Protocol is likely to exacerbate not only conflict between local communities but also the increasingly strained relations between Khartoum and GOSS.

Abyei lies at the faultline of Sudan. It encapsulates the cultural and livelihoods divide of the country, but at its best could also exemplify peaceful interdependence at the community level. It is a key stronghold of the South's most powerful ethnic group, the Dinka. It may contain only less than a quarter of the country's current production, but it is possibly the largest proven reserve over which the rest of Sudan may claim control.

am/bp/mw

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org


AlertNet news is provided by
Email this article       Send comments

Emergencies

•  South Sudan fragile peace

•  Sudan conflicts

•  Israeli-Palestinian conflict

MORE >>

NGO latest

•  Armed Raid on Medair Compound in El Geneina, West Darfur
Medair - Switzerland

•  Drought Threatens Millions of East Africans, LWR is Responding
LWR - USA

•  Sudan: detainees transferred under ICRC auspices
ICRC - Switzerland

•  In Their Own Words
IMC - USA

•  New malnutrition treatment for children in Darfur
Red Cross - UK

MORE >>

Latest news

•  SUDAN: Abyei timeline

•  SUDAN: Abyei briefing

•  U.N. reports record humanitarian aid shortfall

•  New transit centre opens in Slovakia to resettle Palestinians stuck at Iraq border

•  Tension mounts ahead of ruling in Sudan's Abyei

MORE >>

IRIN news

Background information

Briefings
South Sudan fragile peace - [Who works where]
Sudan conflicts - [Who works where]
Israeli-Palestinian conflict - [Who works where]

Facts & figures
Sudan
Statistics graphs
Human development index ranking (2005)
Chart for Human development index ranking
View more stats >>

Related articles

Breaking stories
 SUDAN: Abyei timeline (1 minute ago)

SUDAN: Abyei briefing (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
 "War on terror" used to target minorities - report (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
 Armed Raid on Medair Compound in El Geneina, West Darfur (1 minute ago)

Blogs
 Killing me softly in south Sudan (1 minute ago)

Maps
 MAP: Sudan complex emergency (1 minute ago)


Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-07-18T062743Z_01_CAI502R_RTRIDSP_2_EGYPT_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/CAI502R.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-07-18T004507Z_01_CAI504_RTRIDSP_2_EGYPT_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/CAI504.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-07-18T001333Z_01_CAI503_RTRIDSP_2_EGYPT_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/CAI503.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-07-18T001050Z_01_CAI501_RTRIDSP_2_EGYPT_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/CAI501.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-07-18T000534Z_01_CAI502_RTRIDSP_2_EGYPT_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/CAI502.htm

Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir waves to supporters at an event organized by the Sudanese embassy in Cairo July 17, 2009. Bashir was indicted in March by the International Criminal Court ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Tue Jul 21 15:22:54 2009