Sudan: Fighting resumes between army and former southern rebels in oil-rich town of Abyei

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) – Sudanese soldiers battled former southern rebels Tuesday in the oil-rich region of Abyei despite a five-day old cease-fire, U.N. and southern officials said. The United Nations has pulled most of its civilian staff from the town, which lies just north of the disputed boundary line between north and south Sudan, and remains contested despite a peace accord in 2005 that ended a 21-year civil war.

Clashes erupted there last week between Sudan’s Arab-dominated army and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army [(SPLA)], an ethnic African militia — making Abyei a flashpoint that could wreck the fragile peace. The civil war left an estimated 2 million people dead. The U.N. says between 30,000 and 50,000 people have been displaced by the recent fighting. SPLA officials say the town’s market and only bank were burned, and the town has been virtually deserted. The number of casualties are difficult to determine because of the continued violence.

Sudanese troops resumed shelling Abyei on Tuesday, U.N. and southern officials said. Army spokesman Brig. General Osman al-Aghbash said SPLA forces attacked an army camp with heavy weapons including tanks and rockets, “with the intention of taking over the town”. Al-Aghbash told the state-run Sudan News Agency that members of the army were killed in the attack, but did not give a number.

A U.N. official said a stray mortar round and small arms fire hit the group’s compound in Abyei, but there were no casualties. “(The U.N. compound) was not targeted. The fighting was close,” said Kouider Zerrouk, a U.N. spokesman in Khartoum. “There are no casualties.”

Sudan’s 2005 peace agreement created a unity government led by President Omar al-Bashir and his one-time military rival, First Vice President Salva Kiir. It also set up a semi-autonomous southern government led by Kiir, and called for national elections in 2009 and a referendum on independence for South Sudan in 2011. The Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement [SPLM], which Kiir heads, has accused al-Bashir of breaching the 2005 accord by refusing to share oil wealth, failing to pull government troops out of South Sudan, and remilitarizing contested border zones such as Abyei.

Tension has occasionally flared in Abyei, which is claimed by the southerners, but the northern government is reluctant to let go because of its oil fields. A fragile cease-fire was reached on Thursday and consultations continued to ease the tension. SPLA released two members from the northern ruling party it had captured during the fighting, and the two sides agreed to pull troops from the contested town. According to the 2005 agreement, only joint military units from both sides are allowed to be deployed in Abyei, until its administrative fate is to be determined in a 2011 referendum.

U.N. aid organizations on Monday began distributing food and water and reuniting children separated from their families because of the fighting. Zerrouk said aid distribution outside of Abyei continued despite the fighting.

Michael Majar, a southern official from Abyei, said shelling between the two sides resumed early Tuesday and then stopped a few hours later. “I am not sure the (cease-fire) talks are serious,” Majar said from Juba, where he was attending a party convention. He said the Sudanese army has refused to pull out of Abyei. An unidentified Sudanese official told the Sudanese Media Center, which is close to the government, that SPLA was mobilizing troops south of Abyei to attack the town. Majar could not confirm that.

Source: AP Writer Mohamed Osman contributed to this report.
Also, this report was taken at PR Inside.