(May 31, 2011, JUBA, Sudan)- Western diplomats and African leaders are pressing for a new strategy to defuse Sudan’s bitterly contested Abyei area: bringing in Ethiopian peacekeepers as a buffer between opposing forces.
According to several Western officials in Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, Ethiopia has volunteered to deploy several thousand soldiers to the Abyei area, which straddles the border between northern and southern Sudan and was seized by the northern Sudanese military on May 21.
“We need something quick for Abyei, and the Ethiopians are it,” a Western diplomat said Monday.
The contested status of Abyei has become one of the most worrisome issues facing Sudan as it prepares to split into two.
In July, southern Sudan is scheduled to declare its independence from the north after a liberation struggle that cost millions of lives over decades.
But several key issues remain unresolved, including how to split oil revenues and Sudan’s $38 billion debt.
With northern soldiers and tanks occupying Abyei and southern officials demanding their withdrawal and tens of thousands of civilians recently displaced and scattered in the bush.
Western diplomats and many Sudanese fear that the breakup of Sudan could coincide with the breakout of war, unless Abyei is solved.
Under the proposal, the northern army would withdraw from the Abyei area in the next few weeks, and in their place would come thousands of Ethiopian soldiers until a permanent solution could be reached.
Abyei was supposed to be patrolled by joint northern and southern forces, under a peace agreement signed several years ago, but that did not work, setting off clashes in recent months. Read more »
Source: cbs news
According to several Western officials in Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, Ethiopia has volunteered to deploy several thousand soldiers to the Abyei area, which straddles the border between northern and southern Sudan and was seized by the northern Sudanese military on May 21.
“We need something quick for Abyei, and the Ethiopians are it,” a Western diplomat said Monday.
The contested status of Abyei has become one of the most worrisome issues facing Sudan as it prepares to split into two.
In July, southern Sudan is scheduled to declare its independence from the north after a liberation struggle that cost millions of lives over decades.
But several key issues remain unresolved, including how to split oil revenues and Sudan’s $38 billion debt.
With northern soldiers and tanks occupying Abyei and southern officials demanding their withdrawal and tens of thousands of civilians recently displaced and scattered in the bush.
Western diplomats and many Sudanese fear that the breakup of Sudan could coincide with the breakout of war, unless Abyei is solved.
Under the proposal, the northern army would withdraw from the Abyei area in the next few weeks, and in their place would come thousands of Ethiopian soldiers until a permanent solution could be reached.
Abyei was supposed to be patrolled by joint northern and southern forces, under a peace agreement signed several years ago, but that did not work, setting off clashes in recent months. Read more »
Source: cbs news
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