Abyei: Sudan’s Endless Tug-Of-War Over Coveted Oil Region
This dynamic has played itself out in every state where there are clashes between the north and south. In Southern Kordofan, where film star George Clooney, among others, has accused the Sudanese government of bombing noncombatants, the Nuba people, who are loyal to Juba, are the target of aggression. Likewise, Khartoum has accused the south of funding rebels in the Blue Nile state, and the Sudanese Armed Forces have recently reclaimed the Angasana Mountains, according to AllAfrica.
Abyei also has economic significance.
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Sudan has been embroiled in five decades of war, but the conflict’s most recent iteration started seven years ago. During the 2005 negotiations that would eventually lead to South Sudan‘s independence in July 2011, Abyei was left off the map. But because of its oil fields and pipeline, it was a major asset that both sides would eventually claim as their own.
While Abyei’s reserves are thought to be running low and the Greater Nile Oil Pipeline is now sitting in the town of Heglig, thanks to a redrawing of borders in 2009, there is still an outstanding dispute over how to split oil revenues. The disagreement will be one of the main topics at
Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/346891/20120530/sudan-abyei-south-un.htm
Category: South Sudan News
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