Access to Abyei, Displaced Residents Continuously Threatened
Posted by Amanda Hsiao on Sep 30, 2011
Agok airstrip Enough Project
Abyei should remain accessible to humanitarians operating from both
Sudan and South Sudan, the U.N. humanitarian coordination office, or
OCHA, and former southern minister Luka Biong Deng said recently.
The disputed area, which sits between North and South Sudan, was
forcibly taken by the Sudanese army in May while talks aimed at
resolving whether the area belongs to the North or the South were
still ongoing. The attack displaced most of the area’s population and
was followed by the claim, from Sudanese President Omar al Bashir,
that Abyei belongs to the North.
In June, northern and southern officials signed a temporary agreement
that spelled out arrangements for the volatile region until a
resolution on the final status of Abyei could be reached.
It remains uncertain whether Khartoum will continue to assert that
Abyei belongs to the North until the region’s status is determined.
One key question that has arisen is how this legal understanding of
Abyei’s status may affect humanitarian access to the region once the
area’s population begins to return—and whether Khartoum will argue
that it alone has the power to grant clearance for access to the area.
An estimated 110,000 people remain displaced from Abyei and are
scattered in locations to the south of the area. Humanitarian agencies
responding to the needs of the displaced population have been largely
operating in South Sudan, where the new government in Juba has
control.
The real test will be when residents of Abyei begin to return home.
“Will we be able to continue doing the same work—including in the
Abyei area—and under which circumstances?” said head of OCHA South
Sudan Giovanni Bosco in an interview with Enough.
The Sudanese government has a long history of obstructing
international humanitarian assistance, and the current conflicts in
the border areas of South Kordofan and Blue Nile are no exceptions to
Khartoum’s record.
Abyei residents have little to return to after the northern army’s
invasion and the subsequent looting. Satellite images around the time
of the initial attacks documented widespread destruction of homes and
villages.
According to the U.N., rampant looting and burning of homes by
northern soldiers and affiliated forces took place under the northern
occupation.
More recently, flooding from heavy rains has severely limited access
to the displaced. According to IRIN, about 40,000 people in one
displaced site, Agok, have been living on half rations in September
because the area is unreachable. Continuing to support the Abyei
population once they begin to return will “be of utmost importance,”
OCHA’s Giovanni Bosco said.
Since May, OCHA has been advocating for an access agreement that would
allow humanitarians registered either with the Juba or Khartoum
governments to operate in Abyei, a point that was also stressed by
former southern minister Dr. Luka Biong Deng in a paper recently
published by the non-profit Kush, Inc.
If the emergency response to Abyei was limited to operations from the
North, there are questions of whether such responses could be
effective, given the impediments created by three ongoing conflicts
along the North-South border. “Logistically it would be difficult to
access Abyei from the North because the rear base for humanitarian
support is Kadugli, in Southern Kordofan,” wrote Deng. Fighting broke
out in South Kordofan in June and according to the latest U.N. readout
on the situation, clashes have taken place in the last week in the
areas surrounding Kadugli.
The former official stated that even with the independence of South
Sudan, Abyei retains its “special” status between the now two separate
countries. “It is important to recognize that Abyei is a contested
area between North and South Sudan and until its status is determined
legally and politically, it retains a special status between both
nations,” he wrote. Under the temporary agreement, a joint North-South
body is mandated with the administration of Abyei—evidence that the
region is meant to remain under dual jurisdiction, Deng said.
Photo: Flooded airstrip in Agok (Enough/Tim Freccia)
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