Abyey: Entre um e outro Sudão

Nairobi — It was supposed to be the "bridge" between Sudan and South Sudan, a symbol of how two once-warring neighbours can move forward into a new era of peace, a model for amicable problem-solving. Instead, the Abyei area remains mired in a worsening crisis which stands in the way of full rapprochement between Khartoum and Juba. The crisis is one of sovereign identity, and has roots almost a century old. Hopes that it would be settled this month by a referendum are likely to be dashed: few of the necessary preparations are in place and Khartoum is against holding such a vote now. As a result, according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's latest report to the Security Council, Abyei, a border-straddling area of some 10,500sqkm, is now beset by a "dangerous political and administrative vacuum" of "considerable concern," where the situation is becoming "increasingly untenable" with "the potential to escalate into inter-communal violence." A UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), comprising some 3,881 troops, is deployed there with a mandate that includes demilitarizing the area, averting cross-border incursions, facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid and protecting civilians threatened with violence. This briefing provides an analytical overview of the impasse. What's the referendum for? To allow the people of Abyei to decide whether they want the area to remain part of Sudan or be restored, 98 years after it was transferred by the stroke of a colonial pen, to South Sudan. A dispute between Khartoum and Juba over voter eligibility prevented the referendum being held as scheduled in early 2011, when residents of what was then the autonomous region of southern Sudan voted in a separate referendum which paved the way for its secession in July of that year. Most of Abyei's permanent residents belong to the Ngok Dinka community, which largely supported southern rebels in the 1983-2005 civil war against Khartoum. This conflict was in part sparked by the failure to honour a 1972 peace accord provision that Abyei hold a self-determination referendum. For about six months of every year the Abyei area is also home to around 150,000 migrating pastoralists from Sudan's Misseriya community (and 1.6 million head of livestock), many of whose members fought in pro-Khartoum militias during the civil war. IRIN