Sunday, May 22nd, 2011 at 8:25 pm UTC
VOA
Posted 7 hours ago
South Sudan says the northern army's seizure of the contested Abyei oil region is illegal.
Southern information minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin is calling for help from the international community. He says the United Nations Security Council is responsible to see that northern troops leave the region.
The government in Khartoum said Sunday the Abyei region is now under its control and it is clearing the area of southern army troops. The action has raised fears that a new north-south civil war will break out as the south prepares to become independent on July 9.
The northern and southern armies had agreed to conduct joint patrols in Abyei. But fighting erupted Thursday when a northern army convoy, accompanied by U.N. peacekeepers, came under attack. Both armies accuse each other of firing first. A U.N. official said a mortar landed in the U.N.'s compound near Abyei.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday he is deeply concerned for the safety of civilians. In a written statement, he also deplored the shelling of the U.N compound that wounded two peacekeepers, and he urged both sides to immediately stop all military actions.
The question of whether oil-rich Abyei should join northern or southern Sudan was not settled when southern voters passed an independence referendum in January.
A separate referendum on Abyei was canceled because of a dispute over who was allowed to vote.
The aid group Doctors Without Borders said nearly all of Abyei's population has fled the town since the violence started.
Both the United States and Britain have condemned the Sudanese government's seizure of Abyei.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has warned his government will not recognize south Sudan as an independent state if it does not give up claims on Abyei.
Southern information minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin is calling for help from the international community. He says the United Nations Security Council is responsible to see that northern troops leave the region.
The government in Khartoum said Sunday the Abyei region is now under its control and it is clearing the area of southern army troops. The action has raised fears that a new north-south civil war will break out as the south prepares to become independent on July 9.
The northern and southern armies had agreed to conduct joint patrols in Abyei. But fighting erupted Thursday when a northern army convoy, accompanied by U.N. peacekeepers, came under attack. Both armies accuse each other of firing first. A U.N. official said a mortar landed in the U.N.'s compound near Abyei.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday he is deeply concerned for the safety of civilians. In a written statement, he also deplored the shelling of the U.N compound that wounded two peacekeepers, and he urged both sides to immediately stop all military actions.
The question of whether oil-rich Abyei should join northern or southern Sudan was not settled when southern voters passed an independence referendum in January.
A separate referendum on Abyei was canceled because of a dispute over who was allowed to vote.
The aid group Doctors Without Borders said nearly all of Abyei's population has fled the town since the violence started.
Both the United States and Britain have condemned the Sudanese government's seizure of Abyei.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has warned his government will not recognize south Sudan as an independent state if it does not give up claims on Abyei.
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