Bashir vows to hold disputed town

James Copnall says the latest clashes “clearly reveal the tensions” between the north and south

Sudan’s president has said he will not withdraw troops from the disputed Abyei border region seized over the weekend.

President Omar al-Bashir said the area belonged to the north.

He added his army would respond to any possible “provocation” from the army of South Sudan, due to become an independent state on 9 July.

Northern troops seized the territory after southern forces had ambushed a convoy of its forces in the area, killing 22 people.

Analysts fear the the dispute could reignite the north-south conflict, in which some 1.5 million were killed.

The status of Abyei was left undecided in the 2005 peace deal and a referendum, due in January, on whether the area should be part of the north or south has been postponed indefinitely.

‘Grave consequences’

The two sides fought for decades before agreeing to share power and hold a referendum on southern independence.

“Abyei is northern Sudanese land,” President Bashir said, according to Reuters, adding: “We will not withdraw from it.”

Earlier on Tuesday, a southern minister in Sudan’s national government resigned, saying “war crimes” had been committed in the region.

Luka Biong Deng, a senior official in the south’s ruling party, originally from Abyei, said he could no longer work with Mr Bashir’s party in the unity government.

Some 20,000 people have now fled the town of Abyei, which has been left deserted, aid workers say.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said she had received reports that northern forces had been shelling and bombing civilian areas.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement has urged the northern troops to withdraw from the town.

The US envoy to Sudan, Princeton Lyman, has warned that the takeover could jeopardise possible debt relief worth billions of dollars.

He also said that Washington would find it difficult to remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism unless troops were withdrawn from Abyei.

Under these sanctions Sudanese companies are banned from using US currency – a major obstacle to international trade.

The US has previously suggested that a peaceful transition to independence for the south and a negotiated solution to the separate conflict in Darfur could normalise relations.

The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. Southern Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.

Sudan’s arid northern regions are home mainly to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in Southern Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own traditional beliefs and languages.

The health inequalities in Sudan are illustrated by infant mortality rates. In Southern Sudan, one in 10 children die before their first birthday. Whereas in the more developed northern states, such as Gezira and White Nile, half of those children would be expected to survive.

The gulf in water resources between north and south is stark. In Khartoum, River Nile, and Gezira states, two-thirds of people have access to piped drinking water and pit latrines. In the south, boreholes and unprotected wells are the main drinking sources. More than 80% of southerners have no toilet facilities whatsoever.

Throughout Sudan, access to primary school education is strongly linked to household earnings. In the poorest parts of the south, less than 1% of children finish primary school. Whereas in the wealthier north, up to 50% of children complete primary level education.

Conflict and poverty are the main causes of food insecurity in Sudan. The residents of war-affected Darfur and Southern Sudan are still greatly dependent on food aid. Far more than in northern states, which tend to be wealthier, more urbanised and less reliant on agriculture.

Sudan exports billions of dollars of oil per year. Southern states produce more than 80% of it, but receive only 50% of the revenue, exacerbating tensions with the north. The oil-rich border region of Abyei is to hold a separate vote on whether to join the north or the south.

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