[Published: Friday November 01 2013]
 Abyei opts to join South Sudan
Juba, 1 Nov - (ANA) - Residents of the disputed region of Abyei have voted overwhelmingly to join South Sudan in an unofficial referendum. But the Arabic-speaking Misseriya nomadic community favouring union with Sudan boycotted the vote. Abyei's Dinka Ngok ethnic group organised the vote, with 99.9% of voters wanting to join South Sudan. Abyei abuts both Sudan and South Sudan - which seceded in 2011 - and is claimed by both countries.
The African Union has described the vote as a threat to peace between Sudan and South Sudan. A 2005 peace deal was supposed to give Abyei a separate referendum on whether to be part of Sudan or South Sudan. However, the two sides still cannot agree on who is eligible to vote in the referendum and so it has not officially been held. "The Abyei people have been suffering for a long time. People are marginalised, mistreated and their rights denied. They deserve this day," Deng Alor, chairman of the Abyei Referendum High Committee, told the Reuters news agency. But top Misseriya chief Mukhtar Babo Nimir told the AFP news agency that "no-one in the world will recognise this referendum". Tim Flatman, an independent observer in Abyei, said only 12 out of 63,433 people voted to be part of Sudan during the three-day poll, AFP reports. Initial observations suggested a "very transparent process", he said. The UN has some 4,000 peacekeepers in Abyei. Abyei's Dinka Ngok residents are culturally and ethnically allied to South Sudan and backed its rebel army during decades of civil war against Khartoum's rule.
However, the Arabic-speaking Misseriya people also see it as their ancestral homeland and want to remain in Sudan. North and South Sudan have suffered decades of conflicts driven by religious and ethnic divides, with an estimated 1.5 million people killed in the civil war.(ANA)
FA/ANA/1 November 2013-----------
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