An estimated 60 000 civilians are still unable to return home more than two months after fleeing the violence in the oil town of Abyei in south Sudan, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report obtained on Wednesday.
Most of the civilians are believed to be living in temporary shacks in Twic County, south of Abyei, and say they are afraid to return until the perpetrators of the violence, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), have left, the report said.
”Displaced people told us repeatedly that they could not go home until Abyei was safe,” said Georgette Gagnon, Human Rights Watch’s Africa director. ”To them, ‘safe’ means the complete withdrawal of the SAF.”
On May 13, the SAF clashed with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and carried out extensive burning and looting that led to the destruction of half the city’s homes, according to the HRW report Abandoning Abyei: Destruction and Displacement, May 2008.
A full investigation into the number of casualties could not take place because access to the town is restricted by the SAF, but as many as 89 civilians were reported killed.
On June 7, political representatives from northern and southern Sudan signed the Abyei Roadmap to try to expedite the return of civilians.
The blueprint called for the withdrawal of troops and the deployment of joint patrols. To date, neither side has completely withdrawn their troops.
The violence in May was seen as the biggest threat to the fledgling Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended 21 years of civil war between north and south in 2005 after more than 1,5-million people were killed.
Abyei is in an oil-rich region of Sudan and its political and administrative status remains one of the most contentious outstanding issues in the implementation of the CPA.
In 2011, Abyei is scheduled to hold a referendum on whether to retain its special administrative status in the north or join the south, which could decide in a separate referendum to secede from the north.
”A return to violence in Abyei could have massive repercussions for the whole of Sudan,” said Gagnon. ”Khartoum and the government of South Sudan need to implement the roadmap in full and on time, and the UN and governments should put pressure on them to do so.” — Sapa-AFP