Oliver Mathenge
24 May 2011
Nairobi — The Sudan government said on Tuesday the ongoing impasse over the disputed Abyei region should be resolved through peaceful means and is now calling for talks with officials from Southern Sudan and the United Nations.
Through its ambassador to Kenya, Mr Kamal Ismail Saeed, the Sudanese government said that 197 Northern troops were killed or are missing after an attack last week by southern forces near Abyei that kicked off the latest tension between north and south Sudan.
“There is need for us to resolve this issue as it is a political conflict. There’s no way of going back to war. We are committed to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in both letter and spirit,” Mr Saeed said.
Mr Saeed told journalists in Nairobi that last Thursday’s attack caused the northern forces to move into the flashpoint zone of Abyei in what he termed it as “self defence”.
Mr Saeed however insisted that the north is committed to a peaceful resolution.
United Nations troops were escorting the northern forces during the attack, which the UN called a “criminal act” and a breach of north-south agreements.
Southern Sudanese militia (file photo): Khartoum accuses the south of triggering the latest dispute over the Abyei region by attacking northern troops.
The fight over Abyei threatens to send North and South back to war only two months before the south is scheduled to declare independence.
Fighting in Abyei has pitted the former civil war enemies against each other since January when the district was due to vote on its future alongside a referendum on independence for the south which delivered a landslide for secession.
But the plebiscite was postponed indefinitely as the North and South disagreed on who should be eligible to vote.
Meanwhile, a UN Security Council delegation was meeting with representatives of the government in Khartoum but neither Foreign Minister Ali Karti, who was expected to lead discussions, nor Vice President Ali Osman Taha was present.
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