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.

Seizure of the Sudan border key city reignites concerns of the civil war

The news of Juba, southern Sudan - end Saturday evening, frequency of percolation from the Sudan more challenged and militarized hotspot of North-South border: Northern Sudanese army had invaded the town of Abyei, with tanks.

The move, followed by two days of aerial bombardment and a statement by the President Omar el-Bashir that its Government has been dissolving the local Government of Abyei, raises fresh questions that Sudan could descend into civil war before Southern secession officially on July 9.

Oil-rich South, the seizure of the strategic town leaders, was both a declaration of war by the Government of the North and an attempt to well planned to supplant the Ngok Dinka people loyal to the South to maintain permanently take AbyeiAfter the South declared independence.

Monitor QUIZ: Weekly News Quiz for 16-20 May 2011

"[By the Government of the North forced] current occupation is illegal," said Information Minister Barnaba Marian Benjamin of South Sudan. "It is the responsibility of the [UN] Security Council to see that they are withdrawn."

Mounting clashes

The massif escalation of violence between the two armed forces of the Sudan in the historically volatile region came to mind as a delegation of the United Nations Security Council arrived in the capital of the North for a four-day visit.Tensions began to boost Thursday when a grenade Rocket Tower hit a vehicle one which was escorting a convoy of troops from the North. Saturday, a hard response from the North was well already launched in Abyei.

Saturday, spokesman of the army of the South Col. Philip Aguer said that at least 5,000 soldiers from the North and allied militias proxy had infested Abyei from multiple directions, causing the troops from the South to scatter before the city fell to the army of the North.

Concerns of the civil war

Security analysts are now warning that the violence may spread rapidly.

"After weeks of commitment critical national actors and international to prevent escalation, the situation in Abyei has indeed boiled, and the immediate priority is to contain the situation to do not ignite wider conflict, said EJ Hogendoorn"Horn of Africa for the International Crisis Group Project Director based in Brussels.

Sudan 101: Could the North-South war trigger again?

Ambassador Princeton Lyman, Special Envoy of President Obama in Sudan, warned in an interview telephone Sunday that the failure of the Sudanese Army North to stop his offensive in Abyei, which he calls a "disproportionate" by the North to the fighting that flared Thursdaywill cause setbacks in the process of normalization of relations with the U.S. Government.

But a Western diplomat who spoke the condition of anonymity, expressed skepticism of the ability of international representatives to influence the Government of the North following the arrest of the army of Abyei. "We can issue statements, but where leverage? "the diplomat returned in question."

Control of Abyei: a key friction point

The fertile territory, producers of oil to the North and the South say that it has proved to be the main point of friction between the two parties since they signed the 2005 peace agreement that put an end to decades of war. International arbitration, several treaties placed and constant pressure of actors ranging from groups of local civil society to start Hollywood George Clooney did not move north and South on their positions hardened on the future of the Abyei area. Southern Sunday leaders appealed to the international community, including the delegation visit to Security Council United Nations, to put pressure on the army of the North to withdraw in Abyei, but leaders of Northern appeared refuses to move - perhaps emboldened by a military victory clear and the increasingly obvious that fact other clashes between the armies of the North and South in Abyei would probably another decisive victory for the army of the North immediately.

Thousands flee as city flashpoint seizes army of Sudan

JUBA, Sudan (AFP) - thousands of civilians were fleeing the fighting in Sudan? s disputed Abyei district Sunday, as the army admitted South Northern troops were in full possession of its main city.

"The fighting have been very, very bad," said Philip Aguer, spokesman for the South? s of the people of Sudan? s army of liberation.

Later Saturday, troops in the North of the Sudan Armed Forces took the town of Abyei, focal point of murderous tensions between North and South in the period preceding the recognition provided for the independence of the South at the end of JulySaid Aguer.

"People have fled the region, because the bombing was indiscriminate - bombs and air tanks on the ground.".

"They come in Abyei with a complete soldiers division, while we do not have a force of combat on the ground.".

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

"We don?". t know now the exact location of their "said Aguer." "" People are missing. They were attacked very heavily. ?

Aguer stated that there was no planned immediate counter-attack.

"As SPLA, we cannot declare war as an army." We are waiting for the Government of southern Sudan to decide what is the next step. ?

The Organization of the United Nations called Saturday for "immediate cessation of hostilities".

Their base at Abyei were identified, with a landing within the enclosure mortar shells but it has not occurred victim, said a spokesman.

A delegation of the United Nations Security Council arrived in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Saturday.

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

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

"MSF in Agok teams are waiting to meet an additional influx of wounded," the statement added, but it had also suspended work to Abyei, said. "".

Fighting in Abyei were opposite the former civil war enemies against each other since January when it was due to vote on its future alongside a referendum on independence for the South.

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.

A statement by the White House called on the armed forces of Sudan "to immediately cease all offensive operations in Abyei and to withdraw its forces."

"Failure to do so could back the process of normalization of relations between the United States and the Sudan and inhibit the ability of the international community to advance critical issues for the future of Sudan," the statement warned.

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.