KHARTOUM, Dec 14, 2008 (AFP) - Some 3,000 civilians fled the Sudanese town of Abyei but are drifting back to the disputed oil district where fighting this year raised fears of a return to civil war, a local official said on Sunday.
"The general population, because of the sensitivity of the area and because of the experience of what happened in May, don't want to hear any shot of the bullet. It scares them," Abyei chief administrator Arop Moyak told AFP.
"Those who left is not less than 3,000, but there is a sign that some of them are coming back," Moyak said.
He broke off urgent political talks in the south Sudan capital Juba to return to Abyei on Saturday.
At least one person died in the clashes that ripped through the dusty market, less than two weeks after UN officials said that thousands of civilians were returning home after devastating fighting flattened the town in May.
The precise circumstances remain unclear, but one official said it started with an argument in the market between a store seller and a northern soldier.
In a dangerous development for the stability of the disputed border district, police from a joint unit of former foes from north and south Sudan, and soldiers from a similar unit traded gunfire.
Rival politicians from north and south agreed in June to conduct joint patrols and share an interim administration in the town.
Local officials told AFP by telephone from Abyei on Sunday that the violence was over and stressed that the fighting had been localised and without heavy weapons.
"It is calm. There is no problem now. One policeman was killed and there were eight wounded, including two civilians," said Moyak.
In 2011 autonomous south Sudan is scheduled to vote on whether to break away as an independent state or remain united with the north.
Abyei is to hold a separate vote on whether to retain its special administrative status in the north or become part of the south.
At the heart of the dispute over Abyei, is the fate of the district's estimated half-billion dollar oil wealth and grazing rights for migratory Arab herders from the Messeria tribe, aligned largely with the north.
str-jm/kir
