The Obliteration of Abyei: Another Civil War to Begin in Sudan?

(Image from Washington Post)

Due to fierce fighting between the Northern Sudanese regime and Southern Sudan, the town of Abyei has been obliterated in the past few weeks. Over 100,000 have fled, infrastructure has been demolished, and the clashes between the two sides now threaten a resurgence of yet another civil war in Sudan, as the conflict in Darfur continues to rage on.

Background

The Northern Sudanese regime and officials of Southern Sudan have been continuing to negotiate the implementation of the 2003 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended a civil war that lasted for two decades. One of the major sticking points of negotiations has been ownership of the oil-rich town of Abyei which resides on the border (see map above).

To resolve the conflict between the two sides over this region, the CPA's Abyei Protocol [PDF] gave the town special administrative status, with its borders to be determined by an independent commission. In 2005, the commission's report was rejected by the northern Sudanese government. As tensions continued to increase, violence began to spurt in late 2007/early 2008 between the two sides.

Experts have been closely watching this conflict, forecasting that the oil-rich town would be the starting point if civil war were to re-emerge in Sudan.

A Town Obliterated

(Image from BBC)

The ENOUGH project documented the obliteration of the town of Abyei throughout May 2008. According to their reports , Sudanese armed forces of the north had been illegally deploying there in Feb. 2008. Since then, the 31st Brigade of the Sudan Armed forces had been using terror tactics such as night shootings to systematically clear the region of civilians.

By May 16-17 2008, the town of Abyei had effectively ceased to exist. Local S. Sudanese officials estimated that over 100,000 had fled and that at least 25% of the town's structures had been demolished.

The head of the UN Mission in Sudan Ashraf Qazi said: "We have been to the centre of Abyei and it doesn't exist any more...It's totally charred. It's totally devastated. And it's an absolute human tragedy and it is something that must never happen again."

Urgent Need for Concrete Action

Abyei accumulated about $529 million in oil revenues last year. As both sides desperately continue to squabble over ownership over this territory, experts fear a return to civil war.

Local officials of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement representing S. Sudan said: "We are being forced to go to war...We are not desiring to go to war -- we have been forced to fight."

In addition, Khartoum has been once again been masterfully manipulating these tensions by weaving Darfur into the mix. Prior to the destruction of Abyei, the Northern regime had asked the South to help them defend against rebel groups from Darfur, which the South declined to do.

Since the country's independence, Khartoum has been known for destructively manipulating regions of Sudan that opposed its elitist rule, by inter-weaving the various armed conflicts throughout the country to create leverage.

As S. Sudan has its hands full of reconstructing their own lands and fighting for their sustained autonomy, it is once again up to the rest of the world to step in and help prevent the country to degenerate even further -- not just releasing vague statements of condemnation, but strategizing and implementing concrete steps of action.

See ENOUGH's policy recommendations here as to what the US and UN can do to.