The
Sudan Tribune claims that the
Dajo people were located in the region of Abyei prior to the seventeenth century, before being displaced by new migrants. From at least the eighteenth century Abyei was inhabited by the agro-pastoralist Ngok Dinka, a sub-group of the
Dinka of
Southern Sudan. The
Messiria, a
nomadic Arab people, who spend most of the year around their base at
Muglad in northern
South Kurdufan, would graze their cattle south to the Bahr river basin in Abyei during the dry season. Abyei's permanent residents were thus the southern Dinka, but half the year the Dinka were outnumbered by the Muslim, northern Misseriya. At the establishment of the
Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, the Messiria were predominantly located in the province of
Kordofan (considered "northern"), while the Ngok Dinka were located in
Bahr el Ghazal (considered "southern"). In 1905, after continued raids by the Messiria into Ngok Dinka territory, the British redistricted the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms into Kordofan. The reason was threefold: to protect the Ngok Dinka from raids by the Messiria and thus pacify the area; to demonstrate that a new sovereign power was in control; and to bring the two feuding tribes under common administration. When the British left in 1956, they left the status of Abyei unclear. By the end of the war the intense fighting had displaced most Ngok Dinka out of Abyei, which the Misseriya state as justification for ownership of the area. The deadlock was finally broken by pressure from the United States. U.S. presidential envoy
John Danforth circulated a draft agreement, which the U.S. convinced the government to sign despite its inclusion of a referendum. The
Protocol on the resolution of the Abyei conflict put Abyei into a special administrative status government directly by the presidency. The precise borders of the area were to be determined by an
Abyei Borders Commission (ABC), followed by a referendum commission to identify Messiria that are resident in Abyei and could thus vote in local elections in 2009; all the Ngok Dinka were to be considered resident, it being their traditional homeland.
Abyei Borders Commission According to an annex to the protocol adopted in December 2004, the Abyei Borders Commission was to be composed of 15 persons: five appointed by the government, five by the SPLA and three by the
Intergovernmental Authority on Development, and one each by the United States and the United Kingdom. Only the five impartial experts could present the final report. The five appointed were:
Godfrey Muriuki of the
University of Nairobi;
Kassahun Berhanu of the
Addis Ababa University;
Douglas H. Johnson, an author of several works on southern Sudan;
Shadrack Gutto, a lawyer from South Africa; and
Donald Petterson, a former ambassador to Sudan. The process and the map showing the boundary is detailed by Johnson. Government resistance to an agreement is largely based on an attempt to hold on to the oil reserves and oil pipelines in the area.
Renewed tensions and violence In October 2007, rising tensions between the SPLA and government resulted in the SPLA temporarily withdrawing from the
Government of National Unity over several deadlocked issues, notably Abyei. At the time, the
International Crisis Group stated, "What happens in Abyei is likely to determine whether Sudan consolidates the peace or returns to war". Armed violence erupted in the Abyei region during late 2007 and throughout 2008. Clashes occurred both between the SPLA and
Messiria fighters and between the SPLA and government troops. Messiria leaders had objected to demarcation provisions of the CPA which they claim have a negative impact upon Messiria access to grazing lands. These grievances fed into armed clashes in December 2007, which killed at least 75 people, and further violence in February and March 2008, resulting in numerous deaths and civilian displacement. These clashes were considered by analysts to represent a serious threat to the peace process and trigger a resumption of civil war. The Messiria were not believed to be directly controlled by Khartoum, however analysts pointed out that local disputes over resources are readily manipulated by outside forces. Following the violence of February and March, the Sudanese government deployed a contingent of 200 or more soldiers to Abyei town on 31 March 2008. Armed clashes between these troops and the SPLA occurred during May 2008 resulting in dozens of deaths and the displacement of an estimated 25,000 civilians. Much of Abyei town was razed; publicist Roger Winter stated that "the town of Abyei has ceased to exist".
Arbitration by a panel under the Permanent Court of Arbitration Following the clashes in Abyei during May 2008, in June 2008 the Sudanese President,
Omar al-Bashir, and the President of the autonomous
Government of Southern Sudan,
Salva Kiir Mayardit, agreed to refer the disputes between the Government and the SPLM/A concerning the ABC's determination of the Abyei area's boundaries to international arbitration at the
Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), in
The Hague. in Abyei, 2009 The arbitration was presided over by an arbitral tribunal composed of five international lawyers –
Professor Pierre-Marie Dupuy, of France, as President, with
Judge Stephen M. Schwebel,
Professor W. Michael Reisman,
H.E. Judge Awn Al-Khasawneh and
Professor Dr. Gerhard Hafner. The tribunal adopted the PCA's Optional Rules for Arbitrating Disputes Between Two Parties of Which Only One is a State. The SPLM/A appointed Dr. Riek Machar Teny, Deputy Chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and Minister Luka Biong Deng, as Agents, and
Gary Born,
Paul Williams and Wendy Miles as counsel. The Government of Sudan appointed Ambassador Dirdeiry Mohamed Ahmed as Agent, and were represented by Professor James Crawford QC, S.C., Dr Nabil Elaraby, Professor Alain Pellet, Rodman Bundy and Loretta Malintoppi. elder in Abyei speaks to the PCA decision, November 2009 Following extensive written pleadings, in April 2009 the parties presented their closing submissions to the arbitration tribunal over six days at an oral hearing at the Peace Palace, The Hague. In a groundbreaking initiative, the parties agreed to broadcast the oral hearing over the internet, which allowed those in Sudan and around the world to see the parties put forward their arguments. Following the hearing the arbitral tribunal then began its deliberations and, less than ninety days later, on 22 July 2009 rendered its final binding decision as to the validity of the boundaries for Abyei and the ABC had drawn. The award ordered the redrawing of the northern, eastern and western boundaries, thus decreasing the size of Abyei. The size of Abyei is crucial to the political dispute, as its residents will be able to vote in a referendum on whether to become part of northern or southern Sudan. The redrawn borders give control of the richest oil fields in the Abyei region, such as the
Heglig oil field, to the north, while giving at least one oil field to the south. Most of the Messiria are outside of the redrawn borders, making it far more likely that the region will vote to join the south. Announcements by both the SPLM and Government of Sudan that they would accept the ruling were hailed by the United States,
European Union, and the
United Nations.
Leadup to referendum As of December 2010, the PCA border has not been demarcated and there is still no agreement on who constitutes a "resident of Abyei" for the purposes of voting in the
Abyei referendum. The question is whether to include Arab nomads (the
Messiria tribe), who have historically stayed in the region every year for six months. If the Misseriya Arabs are prevented from voting, the region will likely go to South Sudan. While the
Dinka Ngok and Messiria tribe maintained a peaceful coexistence during the civil war, the division of Sudan has created mistrust between the two people. In the second week of January 2011, when a referendum was held regarding South Sudanese independence, a simultaneous referendum to determine the fate of Abyei was meant to be held. This referendum was postponed due to the disagreement over voter eligibility. Initial reports indicate that over 20,000 people have fled. The South Sudanese government has declared this as an "act of war", and the U.N. has sent an envoy to
Khartoum to intervene. South Sudan says it has withdrawn its forces from Abyei. As of May 2011, the prospective referendum on Abyei's future status has been postponed indefinitely. The northern leader, then President al-Bashir, dismissed the southern chief administrator of Abyei and appointed a northerner, Ahmed Hussein Al-Imam.
Protests Protests were held in at least two Southern states,
Upper Nile and
Warrap, over the occupation of Abyei by Northern forces. Labor leader
Abraham Sebit, leading the protest in
Malakal, Upper Nile, asked for intervention by the United Nations and suggested a
no-fly zone could be established over Abyei. Governor
Nyadeng Malek of Warrap also condemned the occupation.
Pollution The air is moderately polluted. The local pollution is greater than the maximum limit established for one year by
WHO. Long-term exposure constitutes a health risk.
Ceasefire and enforcement A deal on demilitarization was reached on 20 June 2011. The
United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), consisting of
Ethiopian troops commanded by
Lieutenant General Tadesse Werede Tesfay, were deployed under a
UNSC resolution from 27 June 2011. The UNISFA mandate has periodically been extended. The peacekeepers began arriving in Abyei on 15 July 2011 after traveling overland from Ethiopia, just under a week after
South Sudan formally declared its independence. Both countries continue to claim Abyei, but the presence of UNISFA peacekeepers is intended to prevent the military of either from attempting to wrest control of it. Nonetheless, in 2024 one of the UN peacekeepers was killed when their base in
Agok was attacked. == Abyei Area Administration ==