[ 2011-06-04 ]

UN Council calls on Sudan to withdraw troops from Abyei
The UN Security Council demanded Friday that Sudan
withdraw troops from Abyei and stop looting and
attacks in the region disputed with rival southern
Sudan.

Khartoum government troops overran Abyei, on the
frontier with southern Sudan, on May 21 and razed
much of the main town. The United Nations
estimates that at least 60,000 people have fled
the region.

A statement from the 15-nation Security Council
called Sudan's military operations in Abyei a
"serious violation" of a 2005 peace accord that
ended two decades of civil war with the south in
which two million people died.

Abyei has become a new source of tension as the
south heads toward a formal proclamation of
independence on July 9.

"The council demands that the government of Sudan
withdraw immediately from the Abyei area. The
council further demands the immediate withdrawal
of all military elements from Abyei," said the
statement.

"The council calls on the Sudanese Armed Forces to
ensure an immediate halt to all looting, burning
and illegal resettlement."

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has already
rejected calls by the United States and the
European Union pull his troops out of Abyei.
Russia, China and three African nations joined the
western powers in backing the Security Council
statement, however.

Sudan has sacked the civilian administrator who
came from the south and put an army brigadier in
charge of Abyei.

The dispute over Abyei has been mounting for
months but boiled over when forces from the south
shot at a convoy carrying northern troops and UN
peacekeepers on May 19.

The UN Council and the United States criticized
the south's forces for that attack but
international anger is now focused on the Khartoum
government, which has also ordered UN peacekeepers
to leave the north when the current UN mission
mandate ends on July 8.

UN food stores and other facilities in Abyei have
since been ransacked and looted.

"The Security Council strongly condemns the
government of Sudan's taking and continued
maintenance of military control over the Abyei
Area and the resulting displacement of tens of
thousands of residents," it said, vowing to hold
accountable all those responsible for
international law violations. Sudan's president is
already wanted by the International Criminal Court
for genocide and war crimes.

Most of those who have fled Abyei are ethnic Ngok
Dinka from the south. Misseriya nomads from the
north who each year use Abyei to graze their herds
are said to have moved in with the Sudanese
troops.

The Council also expressed "grave concern
following the reports about the unusual, sudden
influx of thousands of Misseriya into Abyei town
and its environs that could force significant
changes in the ethnic composition of the area."

The UN powers called for a negotiated settlement
between the north and south, calling on leaders
from both sides to cooperate with African Union
efforts to reach a security accord on Abyei under
which troops from the north and south withdraw.

The Security Council said UN peacekeepers should
remain in Abyei after the current mandate ends in
July to patrol the tense border.

It also expressed "deep concern" over tensions in
Sudan's Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan states,
also near the frontier with the south. The states
have strong links to the south but also provide
nearly all the oil pumped out north of the
frontier.

"The council calls on both parties to work to
reduce tensions and promote calm in this sensitive
region," said the statement.

Source - AFP

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