W. Bahr el Ghazal delivers food assistance to Abyei administration
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By Ngor Arol Garang
March 16, 2011 (ABYEI) - The government of southern state of Western
Bahr el Ghazal on Wednesday officially handed over a variety of food
items to the administration of the contested north-south border region
of Abyei.
The relief assistance is intended to support operational demands of
the Abyei administration and other vulnerable groups affected by the
recent past clashes involving local police and armed members of the
Missiriya tribe, who the South claim are backed up by Khartoum’s the
Sudan Armed Forces.
Abyei has been in turmoil since a referendum on the future of the
oil-producing region failed to go ahead in January. South Sudan’s
plebiscite on independence went ahead resulting in a massive vote for
independence.
The South will now become independent in July but the future of Abyei
is far from clear. The regions referendum would have decided whether
the contested region remained as part of the north or joined what will
now be a newly independent Republic of South Sudan.
The ruling parties of north and South have failed to agree on who
could take part in the poll and have, so far failed to find a
political solution or agreement to resolve the issue.
The main stumbling block is Khartoum’s demand that the Misseriya, Arab
cattle herders, who enter the region for a few months each year and
the southern aligned Dinka Ngok ethnic group. The SPLM who govern the
South, maintain that the Dinka Ngok are the only eligible voters.
Violence between the Misseriya and the mainly Dinka Ngok police and
security forces has spiked in recents weeks displacing thousands and
increasing the strain on Abyei’s administration and humanitarian
operations in the area.
The southern state of Western Bahr el Ghazal on Wednesday provided 35
tons of different food items including white flour, sugar, maize
flour, biscuits and tea were delivered together with 200 full tanks of
fuel to the Abyei administration in a public ceremony officiated by
Kuol Monyluak, head of agriculture department on behalf of Abyei chief
administrator, Deng Arop Kuol.
Speaking at the handing over ceremony in Abyei’s Freedom Square,
Effessio Kon Uguak, deputy governor and a minister of local government
in Western Bahr el Ghazal state, pledged the readiness of his
administration and people of Western Bahr el Ghazal in general to
stand and support people of Abyei and their administration to achieve
their aspirations.
He said Abyei is the gateway and leg of South Sudan. "If there are
people who think Abyei is not part of South Sudan, they need to be
told right away that it is the gateway and leg of south Sudan", said
Uguak. He emphasized his point by adding that it would take him four
hours less to travel to Abyei than someone traveling from Khartoum.
Uguak described the Misseriya as nomads and said that they did not
have any single right to claim in the area. "The so called Missiriya
are just [a] nomadic group who do not have any single right to claim
in Abyei. They are nomadic group who do not have permanent residence",
he said.
The senior member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in the
state of Western Bahr el Ghazal accused Khartoum based government of
deceiving the Misseriya to fight an unjustified war. The Misseriya
should know this", he said.
Speaking at the same occasion, Kamil Wana, a political advisor in the
government of Western Bahr el Ghazal state, said people of Western
Bahr el Ghazal and Abyei are one and the same citizens of greater Bahr
el Ghazal. He said the whole South Sudan is behind Abyei and that
those who think Abyei will not get support from the south are wrong.
The Dinka Ngok are a strand of the Dinka tribe, the largest ethnic
group in South Sudan. Many of the SPLM leadership are Dinka and hold
Abyei as a high priority.
(ST)
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