Security Council Condemns Seizure of Abyei

3 June 2011

Washington — The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) issued a strongly worded statement condemning the takeover of Abyei by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) last month.

Abyei is an oil rich region that lies on the North-South borders of Sudan but has remained a source of dispute between the National Congress Party (NCP) sand the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM).

The area was supposed to have a referendum held last January for its residents to decide whether they want to be part of the North or South. The latter will become an independent state nest July.

The NCP and SPLM have failed to agree on who is eligible to vote in the Abyei referendum and various mediation efforts by regional and international players were unsuccessful in breaking the impasse.

Following an ambush by Southern forces against an SAF convoy that was escorted by UN peacekeepers, the Northern army moved on May 21st to take full control of Abyei. The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir immediately issued a decree dissolving the area’s administrative council without consulting with his First Vice president Salva Kiir who is also the president of South Sudan government.

The United Nations estimates that around 60,000 have been displaced as a result of the military offensive. Images released showed burning huts and ongoing looting.

A monitoring group known as Satellite Sentinel said satellite images showed “evidence of attacks by armored vehicles and the destruction of villages”. It estimated that one-third of civilian buildings in the town were burned by SAF.

Today the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) expressed its grave concern on the ” ongoing violence and rapidly deteriorating situation in Abyei”.

“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 of Abyei. The Council calls on the Sudanese Armed Forces to ensure an immediate halt to all looting, burning, and illegal resettlement” said a unanimous formal council statement read out to a meeting of the 15-nation body by Gabon Ambassador Nelson Messone, this month’s president.

“The Council stresses that all those responsible for violations of international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, as well as those who ordered those acts, will be held accountable”.

“The Security Council condemns the fact that two of the three main supply routes from the North to the South have been blocked, and that the Banton Bridge in Southern Abyei was destroyed by the Sudanese Armed Forces, which impedes needed trade and makes the return of civilians to Abyei more difficult. The Council calls for immediate measures to restore full access through all routes”.

The seizure of Abyei by SAF was called a “serious violation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement” signed in 2005 between the North and South.

“The Council underscores that failure by the Government of Sudan to comply with and to fulfill the CPA jeopardizes the benefits that could flow from such compliance”.

The statement also expressed concern over the sudden influx of Arab The council condemns all unilateral actions meant to create facts on the ground that would prejudice the outcome of negotiations,” it said.

“The council condemns all unilateral actions meant to create facts on the ground that would prejudice the outcome of negotiations,” it said.

Diplomats said that the original U.S. draft had used the phrase “ethnic cleansing,” but other council members argued that it might be overstating the case. The phrase was dropped from the final statement adopted by the council.

Bashir declared that Abyei belongs to the North and rejected international calls for withdrawal. However, other government officials indicated that SAF could withdraw on the condition that new arrangements be reached with the South.

U.S. president Barack Obama dispatched his counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to Sudan this week for talks on Abyei.

In a warning of follow-up unusual in such statements, the council said it would meet in the coming days to review how its demands had been implemented.

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