Thousands flee Abyei of Sudan as militias move to the South

KHARTOUM/JUBA- of the tens of thousands of the disputed Abyei region of Sudan of persons have fled as accused of militias in the North to help seize the region over the weekend moved more to the South, the Organization of the United Nations said Wednesday.

Groups armed, regarded as the militias in the North, also opened fire on four helicopters of the UN in Abyei Tuesday, said a spokesman for the United Nations.

North Sudan sent the tanks in Abyei, a central region, producing of oil claimed by the North and South of the Sudan, on Saturday, triggering an international outcry.

The move comes at a sensitive time for Sudan, less than seven weeks before the South of the country should declare the independence of the North, in a 2005 peace agreement which ended decades of civil war.

Abyei is a key battlefield in the last war of secession of Sudan and a symbolic emblem for both parties. The area is used year-round by the Dinka Ngok people linked to the South and part of the year by northern nomadic Arab Misseriya.

Analysts fear more fighting over the area North-South could trigger a return to widespread conflict, a development which could have a devastating impact on the surrounding area.

Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon has urged the North and the South to return to the negotiating table and to resist "other acts of aggression".

"We must impress all the parties that the military confrontation in Abyei is not an option," he said heads of State at a meeting of African Union in Addis Ababa.

Thousands of Abyei residents if enfuits out of the city of Agok, just over the border in southern Sudan, said aid groups.

Organizations of the United Nations and assistance said up to 40,000 has now been forced to leave their homes and move deeper in the South of Sudan.

"It is a huge number of people now on the road to Agok in Turalei, on muddy roads." Many children must be treated for dehydration, "said Gustavo Fernandez,. Manager of program, with the help of group Medecins Sans Frontieres

Agok, most of the refugees were living under the trees, while that 2 800 found refuge in a local school, said Alliance Anglican assistance group.

The group for the coordination of the Anglican Church, "civilians are down in the street and in the bushes, without food, no shelter, no water and no medical assistance," said in a report.

Militias Misseriya began to push further south after the persons have left the main settlement in the area of Abyei town, said the spokesman for the UN Hua Jiang.

"It was noted that they move to the South", she said.

Spokesperson of the army of the southern Philip Aguer has accused the North of the use of the Misseriya to perform a before the separation of the southern land grabbing.

"Misseriya are transported by the Sudanese armed forces (the army of the North) to Abyei." "They want to claim the Earth", he told Reuters.

NORTH DEFIANT

Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon urged the North and the South to return to the negotiating table and is resistant to the "more acts of aggression."

"We must impress all the parties that the military confrontation in Abyei is not an option," he said heads of State at a meeting of African Union in Addis Ababa.

Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir defies the U.S., United Nations and other calls to to withdraw, saying that abyei belonged to the North. "We will withdraw not of it", he said in Khartoum on Tuesday.

Demonstration of the North could force shaking a fragile political balance which took place in the largest countries in Africa since the agreement of 2005 end of the civil war which caused the death of millions.

It could also delay the restoration of normal diplomatic relations between northern Sudan and the outside world.

The United States Monday excluded dropping in a list of terrorism and restoration of Ambassador from Washington in Khartoum if it continues to occupy Abyei.

A total of 14 rounds were fired when United Nations helicopters took off from a United Nations compound, in the town of Abyei Tuesday but they landed safely, United Nations spokesman said Jiang.

Jiang said Misseriya Khartoum supported militias were probably responsible for the attack.

Fighting and looting - some bases which offer targeted United Nations agencies - had died down, she added.

Northern forces had deployed military aircraft at an air base in North in El Obeid to two fingers in Abyei, said the Sentinel Satellite Project (SSP), a monitoring group.

"The presence of these aircraft capable of attacks near Abyei is consistent with the reports of Sudanese armed forces (Northern) bombing attacks in Abyei in five days," said ssp.

No reliable casualty figure emerged and yet as aid agencies struggle to reach Abyei. Ambassador of Great Britain in Khartoum, Nicholas Kay, wrote on his blog that two of the Embassy staff had lost family members in the disputed region.

Nations United demands pullout of flashpoint Khartoum Abyei

JUBA, Sudan (AFP)-l' organization of the United Nations demanded that Khartoum withdraw its troops from the Sudan Abyei district after the South marks an "invasion" by the troops of the North of the flashpoint border region.

A visit to the UN Security Council delegation said Sunday that they were "very, very concerned about the rapid deterioration of the situation in Abyei" and officially called on Khartoum to withdraw its troops.

"The members of the Security Council to ask the Government of the Sudan to halt its military operation and immediately withdraw from Abyei town and its surroundings," the France Ambassador to the United Nations, Gerard Araud, told a press conference jointly in Khartoum with his counterparts of the Russia and the United States.

A Chief, Ban Ki-moon has urged both sides to withdraw from the Abyei.

"The Secretary-General calls on both parties to immediately cease military operations, to withdraw all forces and armed elements Abyei and to refrain from further acts of antagonism," said a statement from his Office.

The European Union joined the growing chorus of condemnation over the seizure as a threat to peace between Sudan to the North and South in the run-up to the international recognition of the independence of the South in July.

"I condemn the violent incidents in Abyei in recent days," Chief Catherine Ashton, political foreign of the European Union said, stressing that it violated the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) signed between the two parties to put an end to the civil war.

"I therefore appeal to all parties to settle their disputes in the CPA", added the statement.

The EU Foreign Ministers would review the crisis at their meeting in Brussels on Monday, she added.

Abyei was granted special status under the CPA that ended 22 years of devastating civil war between North and South, and it requires that the two sides to protect their troops up to a vote on its future.

"We control of Abyei and the entire region (Bahr al-Arab) North of the Bank of the River," Minister of Khartoum State to the Presidency, Amin Hassan Omer, told a press conference in Khartoum.

"It is because there are still elements of SPLA (Southern?)" s of the people of Sudan? (s Liberation Army) attempts to enforce his presence in Abyei and this is not acceptable according to the Protocol of Abyei and the CPA. ?

Government of southern Sudan has dismissed the allegation as an "absolute lie" and warned that turn to the "illegal occupation" Northern Abyei risked to switch the country to a conflict that would threaten the lives of thousands.

It is an illegal invasion and breaks all the agreements of the peace, endangering life of thousands of civilians, has "declared Minister of information of the South Sudan Barnaba Marial Benjamin."

"This event is a plan long term of the Government in Khartoum," he said, accusing the troops of the North of "fire on carnage of looting houses", that he appealed to peacekeepers of the United Nations to "come out of their bunkers."

"Women and children are victims at the hands of the invading army who does?". t care, "he said." "" "They are hungry, who need drugs and heavy rains out homeless."

Spokesman of the SPLA Philip Aguer already said: "" people have fled the region, because the bombing was indiscriminate - bombs and air tanks on the ground. ""

Faithful to the SPLA troops had retreated in the South of the district of dispute on the border with the North, he added.

Britain Sunday joined the United States and the EU in condemning the move of the North in the district of contested.

"I condemn the recent military actions in and around Abyei, including the attack on Abyei town by the Sudanese armed forces, on 21 May and the joint attack on a Sudanese armed forces convoy of the UN on 19 May and""," said Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Fighting stopped later Sunday, a one spouse - the peacekeeping force said.

"This morning, there were still some ground fighting and exchanged shots, but he seems calm returned in the afternoon, said Kouider Zerrouk.".

Aid agency doctors without borders, which goes to health clinics, in the town of Abyei and 40 km (25 miles) South of Agok said in a statement the "the entire population of the town of Abyei fled the city."

Her Agok clinic had received 42 people injured by Saturday evening.

Fighting in Abyei were opposite the enemies of the former civil war 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 disagree on who should be eligible to vote in an area where conflicting loyalties and land disputes keep high voltages.

The delegation of the United Nations Security Council met Sunday with representatives of the Government of Khartoum but neither Minister for Foreign Affairs Ali Karti, which was supposed to lead discussions, nor Vice President Ali Osman Taha was present.

North, South Sudan Abyei withdrawal of troops agreed: A

KHARTOUM, Sudan - North and southern Sudan have agreed to launch the withdrawal of troops not permitted in the flashpoint border region Abyei, the Organization of the United Nations said, a week after clashes that he caused the death of 14 people.

Both parties agreed that the pullout begins Tuesday and be completed within a week, the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) said late Sunday.

The decision was taken at a meeting of a Joint Committee composed of representatives of the North and the South and chaired by the General commanding the UNMIS Force Moses Obi, said the statement.

"The meeting agreed that the two parties will create an environment by de-escalating tensions speaking of their respective communities on the ground concerning the implementation of the agreements of Kadugli and guarantee freedom of access for UNMIS"said the peacekeeping mission.

A peace agreement signed by both parties in the capital of the State of southern Kordofan in Kadugli in January has called all forces to withdraw from the region bitterly disputed except the joint integrated units special (JIUS) staff of the North and South, the two army and police, alongside UN peacekeepers.

North and South have repeatedly accused each other of sending a large number of "irregular" soldiers to Abyei, in violation of the truce in January.

The Organization of the United Nations was not able to give estimates on the number of troops not permitted in the region, but he explains both armies were reinforcing their positions in and around Abyei in recent months.

The joint integrated units remains there, responsible for ensuring the security of the region.

It is not the first time that the North and South of the Sudan committed themselves to implement the agreements of Kadugli, and the International Crisis Group sounds a note of warning shortly after the announcement of the United Nationsby saying that the Abyei conflict had reached a point of no return.

Escalating tensions on the ground and between the leaders in Khartoum and Juba, who both made unilateral claims on Abyei, endangering the fragile peace in the Sudan and the smooth secession of the South, the think tank based in Brusselssaid.

"New escalation and risk of deployments of tit-for-tat additional forcing Sudan Abyei beyond the point of no return, evoking life and the fragile peace," she added.

The ICG warning comes a week after 14 people were killed at a checkpoint security only 17 kilometers (10 miles) North of the town of Abyei in fighting broke out between the police forces of the southern and Northern elements in integrated ago deployed mixed units.

Police had blocked a convoy of 200 troops and six landcruisers mounted with machine guns - as officials in Khartoum, said was an unauthorized arms shipment but South appointed Chief Administrator of the Abyei described as an "invasion."

The International Crisis Group described the joint integrated units as failure of the 2005 North-South peace agreement which had been largely wrong, who had already participated in large-scale clashes and have been characterized by mistrust.

Future status of Abyei is a raft of issues of Northern and southern Sudan are struggling to agree on prior to the full independence of the South, to be held in exactly two months the most sensitive.

Deadly fighting and recriminations have degenerated since January, when the region ought to vote on whether to join the North or South, alongside a referendum in the South which delivered a landslide for the secession.

But the plebiscite was postponed indefinitely in the middle of the impasse between North and South on who should be eligible to vote.