Juba — North and Southern Sudan have reached a tentative agreement on Abyei, ending a new round of fighting over the area in the recent past. It includes an immediate ceasefire and the removal of armed groups from Abyei town.
The agreement was announced in a statement late on Friday by the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNAMIS), which helped broker the deal, a day after the Southern Sudan military said teams were meeting to hammer out an agreement.
Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, special representative to the United Nations secretary-general, said in the statement that the fighting between the south's Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA) and the north's Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) underline the need for a permanent deal on the area.
"The special representative welcomes the agreement to end the fighting, which was reached between the two parties earlier yesterday at a meeting of the Area Joint Military Committee under the chairmanship of UNMIS," the statement said.
"He hopes that the agreement will bring to an end the violence in this volatile area and calls on both sides to respect all its provisions, including an immediate ceasefire and the removal of other armed groups from Abyei town."
Mr Qazi said both sides should ensure that civilians and civilian installations are fully protected.Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between the Khartoum government and South Sudan in 2005, the oil-rich Abyei, the scene of intense fighting since last week, is supposed to be free of both Khartoum's and the South's armies.
The UN closed down its operations in the area on Thursday, citing the escalation of the conflict.
"As a result of the fighting," Qazi said, "thousands of civilians have fled the area."He added that the latest fighting in Abyei underscores the importance of fully implementing the Abyei Protocol, which outlines how the area should be treated.
The Abyei Boundary Commission completed its work two years ago, but President Omar al Bashir refused to implement the commission's recommendations, saying it had acted beyond its terms of reference.
He said the commission drew the region's borders based on the country's borders in 1956 , instead of those of around 1903-1905.
However, the South says that the earlier boundaries don't exist, and that the move is just a ploy to delay implementation of the protocol.
On Thursday, the Mr Qazi said Abyei's complex problems represent one of the most difficult challenges facing the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan.
"As a first step, the parties need to establish an interim administration to ensure the delivery of much-needed basic services to the community and to act as an effective mechanism for resolving differences and preventing potential conflicts," he said.
At the moment, Abyei has an interim administration unilaterally named by the Southern Sudan government, which the ruling National Congress Party has rejected.
Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Abyei's administration was supposed to be named by the South and approved by the country's president.
But even as the deal was announced, the Southern Sudan army warned that the north was reinforcing troops in the area.
"According to our sources, SAF is reinforcing its troops in the area," southern army spokesman Maj-Gen Peter Parnyang Daniel said on Friday.
"This action by SAF is a direct violation of the CPA which cannot, and should not, be allowed whatsoever. The concerned authorities should act quickly to prevent any further fighting, otherwise it will escalate beyond the control."
The SPLA said the fighting was between the local police and Sudan Armed Forces-backed militia.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Maj-Gen Parnyang said the fighting arose after a misunderstanding on May 13 between the police force and the Gawad El Shaabia El Wathanina National People's Force in Dokura, 16 kilometres north-west of Abyei town.
"That misunderstanding developed into an attack and killing between the two forces, which gradually extended to Abyei town," Parnyang said. "The commanders of both sides tried to mediate and resolve the crisis, in vain."
The clashes turned into full-scale indiscriminate bombardment of Abyei town by the SAF using heavy artillery and mortars, the army spokesman said.
"Most of the town, especially the market, police station and barracks got burnt, not only as a result of the bombardments, but also by SAF soldiers who were sent to burn what was left, which were mainly civilian residential areas," he said.
