|
Sudan rivals meet to end violence
|
| Print |
|
E-mail
|
|
Arab World
|
|
By Agencies
|
![Many people have been displaced by the fighting in the contested area [AFP]](http://mwcnews.net/images/stories/Darfur/1/2/contested-area.jpg "Many people have been displaced by the fighting in the contested area [AFP]") | | Many people have been displaced by the fighting in the contested area [AFP] |
Opposing sides from north and south Sudan have held meetings in Abyei, attempting to end days of violent clashes between the Sudanese military and the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).
The status of the talks, held at a UN facility in the town, was unclear on Monday, but talks have been stalled twice in recent outbreaks of violence.
On Saturday, the two sides agreed to end violence and withdraw their regular forces from the area, leaving a joint-force made up of elements from both the military and SPLA to maintain law and order.
The agreement was immediately broken, but the sides returned to the negotiating table on Sunday. Violent clashes broke out again on Sunday night.
The extent of the destruction in the town was unclear, but reports from aid workers and south Sudan politicians at the time of the fighting told of bodies lying in the streets.
They said there had been looting and that inhabitants' huts and buildings had been set on fire.
Town deserted
People from both the Dinka and Missirya ethnic groups that lived in Abyei have fled or been evacuated, leaving the town deserted.
Ted Chaiban, the Sudan representative for the UN's Children's Fund (Unicef), said that half of the approximately 30,000 people displaced by the Abyei clashes were children.
Zakaria Atem, one of the National Congress party representatives who has disappeared, is a deputy to Kwal Arrob, the sultan of Abyei.
Zakaria is a senior Dinka Ngok politician whose own household is divided between those loyal to Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and those loyal to the National Congress.
Disputed area
The impoverished settlement is in a contested district on the border between north and south Sudan.
While the north currently holds special administrative rights over Abyei, a referendum in 2011 will decide whether it retains its special administrative status in north Sudan or is incorporated into the south.
The clashes began on Wednesday and has exacerbated tensions between north and south Sudan, which fought a 21-year civil war that ended with a peace agreement in 2005.
But the impasse over the Abyei area - whose oil wealth is contested by both north and south Sudan - is one of the stumbling blocks delaying implementation of the peace deal.
Hilde Johnson, the visiting deputy executive director of Unicef, has said the ongoing conflicts in Abyei and Sudan's western Darfur region are derailing plans to put more children in school.
The UN dispatched an emergency assessment team to the region on Saturday.
Antonette Miday, a UN spokeswoman in southern Sudan, said another UN team had been dispatched to Abyei's neighbouring state of Warrap.
Recommend this article...
Tags: Sudan
|
