The January referendum for the self-determination of Southern Sudan which culminated in the creation of Africa’s newest state was also supposed to have taken place simultaneously in Abyei as per the provisions of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

However, this was not to be, owing to the oil-rich border region’s long history as a disputed area.

Located between the Bahr el-Ghazal and Southern Kordofan provinces, Abyei is geographically, ethnically and politically caught between northern and southern Sudan.

It is home to the Ngok Dinka tribe, cousins of the South’s populous Dinka tribe, and is bordered to the north and north-east by the Misseriya, Arab cattle owners who pass through every year to herd their animals.

It is against this background that as the rest of the southern region witnessed peaceful voting, more than 30 people were killed in Abyei.

Even more disturbing are reports indicating that only last week, 100 civilians were killed and thousands displaced following systematic burning of three villages just north of Abyei town.

According to the Satellite Sentinel Project, an initiative conceived by actor George Clooney, a fierce fire razed the villages of Maker Abior, Tajalei and Todach.

The sour relations between the Ngok Dinka and the Misseriya did not begin today. Following Sudan’s independence in 1956, the Dinka and Misseriya have been pulled towards opposite sides of the country’s civil wars.

The first, from 1956 to 1972, polarised the communities along North-South lines. The turning point was 1965, when 72 unarmed Ngok Dinka in the Misseriya town of Babanusa were burnt alive by a mob in a police station in which they had sought refuge.

The Dinka began to gravitate increasingly towards the southern rebel Anyanya and the South’s cause, while the Misseriya received preferential treatment from the central government and firmly identified itself with the North.

The 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement, which ended the first war, included a clause for a referendum to allow “any other areas that were culturally and geographically a part of the Southern Complex”, including Abyei, to choose between remaining in the North or joining the new autonomous southern region.

But the referendum was never held, and attacks against the Dinka continued throughout the 1970s, leading to the formation of a Ngok Dinka unit of the Anyanya II, in the small southern rebellion that began in Upper Nile in 1975.

Still, Abyei in particular, remained the most difficult issue throughout the CPA negotiations. The main disagreement was whether it would be granted a referendum with an option to join southern Sudan, which implied the possibility of joining an independent South after the referendum.

This was a core SPLM demand. With senior representation from Abyei in the movement’s leadership, the late SPLM leader John Garang had little flexibility.

Khartoum consistently refused to consider a referendum for Abyei, arguing that the July 2002 Machakos Protocol had closed that door, and Abyei must remain in the North.

Khartoum’s rejection of a referendum on Abyei was driven primarily by its fear of losing control over the oil resources in the area, which make up the bulk of the proven reserves in northern Sudan.

But for sustainable peace between the North and South in the post-referendum period, a deal must now be hammered out on Sudan’s oil industry.

The three areas along the North-South border (Abyei, South Kordofan and Blue Nile) play a key role in future North-South relations. With all major pipelines running through these areas, the oil industry’s future depends on stability.

As the European Coalition for Oil in Sudan (ECOS) says in its latest report – ‘‘Post Referendum Arrangements for Sudan’s Oil Industry:

How to Separate Siamese Twins’’ – the South’s independence has been the most challenging outcome for the oil industry, and the only acceptable road ahead is an agreement that is truly comprehensive, satisfies the interests of both parties, and offers a commercially attractive framework for the future management of the industry.

Mr Ochieng is editor of NewsfromAfrica ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )