25 May 2011

KHARTOUM: More than 15,000 people have fled Sudans Abyei region to the South after the Northern army seized the disputed area and parts of the main town were burned and looted, U.N. officials said Tuesday.

A senior Southern minister in the Khartoum government resigned, protesting against what he called war crimes committed by the Northern army which had moved tanks into the main regional town over the weekend after weeks of tensions.

Analysts fear North-South fighting over Abyei could reignite a full-blown conflict in Africas largest country, a move that could have a devastating impact on the surrounding region.

Southerners voted in January for independence in a referendum agreed under a 2005 peace deal but Abyei remains the most contentious point in the build-up to secession on July 9.

Khartoum has defied calls by the U.N. Security Council and world powers to withdraw its forces from Abyei, which has oil and fertile grazing land.

U.N. officials said between 15,000 and 20,000 people fled Abyei and arrived in or around Agok, a town just across the Southern border. The situation is very volatile and fluid, said Elizabeth Byrs of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Sudans Cabinet Affairs Minister, Luka Biong, a key Southerner in the government of President Omar al-Bashir, resigned in protest against the events in Abyei. These are real war crimes. I have never seen such suffering. Houses are burned in Abyei town and south of it, Biong told Reuters.

He said the ruling Northern National Congress Party had no interest in finding a peaceful solution on Abyei and other issues with the South on the negotiating table. North Sudan says it sent in troops to clear out Southern soldiers who it said had broken agreements by entering the area.

The EU called on Northern forces to withdraw from Abyei in order to protect a peace deal with the soon-to-be independent South.

We are very concerned about the security situation, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told a news conference after a meeting of European development ministers.

France, which currently holds the presidency of the U.N. Security Council, called on the Northern army to withdraw immediately from its positions.

In addition France calls for the Sudanese government to protect the civilian population against attacks and unacceptable looting that has happened in Abyei since Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

Abyei remains the most contentious point in the build-up to secession.

Meanwhile, the U.S. said the U.N. had received horrific reports of looting and burning in Abyei region after Khartoum seized the area, its ambassador to the U.N. said Tuesday.

There have been horrific reports of looting and burning, there are large numbers of displaced moving south in what is by definition dangerous circumstances, Susan Rice, who co-heads a delegation of the U.N. Security Council, told reporters in Juba, the capital of South Sudan. 

Copyright The Daily Star 2011.