Sudan: Abyei referendum deadline impossible

  1. Posted on Friday 15 October 2010 - 13:30
    Muhyadin
    Muhyadin Ahmed Roble, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
    Leaders in North Sudan have said it is now impossible to hold a referendum on the future of an oil-rich region along the country's north-south border. "We have reached agreement that it is not possible to hold the vote in Abyei on 9 January," Al-Dirdiri Mohammed Ahmed, of the ruling National Congress Party, told reporters.
    southern sudan
    “The vote will run into a number of problems if it goes ahead on that date,” he said.

    The vote on Abyei region is scheduled to take place at the same time as the referendum on southern independence. Abyei residents would decide whether to remain in the north or join the south.

    It was part of the 2005 deal that had ended Africa’s longest civil war that killed about two million people and displaced another four million.

    Southern Officials said it is unacceptable to postpone the vote from the January deadline. On Tuesday, Talks on the future of South Sudan's oil-rich Abyei region in Addis Ababa failed.

    Last week, Sudan’s President al-Bashir accused the country's southern autonomous leadership of breaking terms of a peace deal. He warned a conflict could re-erupt if the two sides did not resolve disputes before referendum vote.

    Al-Bashir's speech raised the stakes in a war of words between Khartoum and former rebel group of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the south government.

    The president said he is still committed to hold the referendum on the south’s independence, which is planned to take place on 9th January, 2011 but insisted both sides first had to settle differences over the site of their borders.

    South Sudan president Salva Kiir vowed that the country would not return to civil war. "There is no reverse to this peace agreement and no going back to war", first vice president of Sudan and president of the semi-autonomous south, Kiir said.

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