Abyei’s Ngok Dinka want security above anything else as Sudan and South Sudan negotiate

ABYEI / KHARTOUM – April 14, 2023

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After joint meetings between the governments of Sudan and South Sudan in Khartoum earlier this week, Sultan of the Ngok Dinka in Abyei Bulabek Deng Kuol said that it is the wish of all people in the disputed region to find a final solution to the Abyei issue that will lead to stability in the region.

Abyei is a region at the Sudan-South Sudan border and disputed by both countries since South Sudan became independent in 2011. The recent meetings between the two governments focused on providing basic services in Abyei. On Monday, both countries agreed that it is important to find a sustainable solution that enjoys support from both countries.

Sultan Kuol told Radio Dabanga that the people’s main priority is security so that they can freely carry out their daily activities.

The outcomes of the meetings did not stipulate the methods or the locations of the planned provision of services.

The sultan mentioned the El Sandoug area, where nine Ngok Dinka clans live, and the areas outside El Sandoug, where Arab Misseriya dwell. He emphasised that the Misseriya inside El Sandoug have the right to enjoy grazing, water, and services.

Relations between the Misseriya and Ngok Dinka have been fraught in the past. Relationships between the two tribes improved when they started holding regular peace conferences on conflict drivers, such as cattle raids, grazing areas, protection of crops, and access to water, and signed a peace deal five years ago.

The Ngok Dinka are indigenous inhabitants of Abyei and reside there all year long whilst the Misseriya, a nomadic Arab herding tribe with members in Kordofan, Darfur, and Chad, rely on long-held agreements to move their cattle through Abyei and South Sudan in the dry season to find water and pastures for grazing.

During the civil war and disputes between Sudan and South Sudan, the Dinka Ngok sided with South Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) whilst the Misseriya were mobilised as a proxy militia by Sudan’s Al Bashir regime, which supported ‘Arab’ herders whilst looking down on ‘African’ farmers.

Such ethnic discrimination and tensions over grazing were also at the roots of the Darfur Genocide and similar hostilities over land also exist between the Misseriya and the Nuba clans in Kordofan.

Disputed land

According to the north-south peace deal in 2005, Abyei was given a ‘special status’ and was supposed to hold its own referendum on joining South Sudan or Sudan when South Sudan would become independent. The referendum never happened, and the situation has remained tense and disputed since.

Abyei’s rich oil reserves make the region economically desirable to both Sudan and South Sudan, something that plays an important role in the dispute.

‘There has been no movement on the issue of the Abyei area since 2013’ – UN Special Envoy Tetteh

Yesterday, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Horn of Africa Hanna Serwaa Tetteh urged Sudan and South Sudan to engage in a dialogue to resolve the issue of the Abyei region, in a way that supports peace, prosperity and development for the people of the region.

“I think it’s important to start the process of engagement on the issue of the Abyei area and I know that […] there has been no movement on the issue of the Abyei area since 2013”, UN Special Envoy said.

The Misseriya fear that they could lose access to the lands of Abyei, which has been the traditional site of their dry season camp for centuries.

“The Misseriya are one million people and ten million cows. If anyone ever tells us we can’t go to Bahr Al Arab, it will mean our death. Poverty is death,” a Misseriya tribal chief told Al Jazeera in 2009.

Continued violence

When talking about the security situation in the Abyei region, the Dinka Ngok sultan explained that attacks are still continuing and that the perpetrators enjoy impunity on the part of both Sudan and South Sudan.

“The perpetrators of all the crimes committed in the region, which includes killing, burning villages, and displacing people, will not be brought to justice by both countries.”

‘The perpetrators of all the crimes committed in the region, which includes killing, burning villages, and displacing people, will not be brought to justice by both countries’ – Sultan Kuol

Neither of the governments stationed (police) forces in the area and a United Nations peacekeeping mission, the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), has been entrusted with overseeing demilitarisation and maintaining security in the area since South Sudan’s independence in 2011.

Sultan Kuol explained that UNISFA could not fully carry out its tasks because it is dependent on the policies of both countries and lacks powers to pursue, prosecute, and imprison perpetrators of violence. There is a lack of agreement between the two countries on how to deal with and prosecute the perpetrators.

All the perpetrators who were arrested by UNISFA forces and handed over to the two countries were released, only to return to committing crimes again, the sultan explained.