Forces deployed to Sudan's oil-rich Abyei region
KHARTOUM, Sudan—Sudan's army and former southern rebels began deploying their forces Wednesday under a joint command in the oil-rich Abyei region of Sudan following last month's agreement to contain recent fighting.
Atem Garang, a senior southern official and deputy national parliament speaker, said only the joint forces and U.N. peacekeepers will be in Abyei, which lies just north of the disputed boundary line with southern Sudan.
The dispute over the region threatened to derail a three-year-old peace agreement in Sudan that ended two decades of civil war between the north and south.
The peace deal established a unity government but key issues were unresolved -- including the north-south boundary and the future of Abyei, coveted because of its oil resources and green fields used for grazing cattle.
The dispute over Abyei has remained separate from the violence in Sudan's western Darfur region.
Fighting last month in the Abyei region drove up to 90,000 people from their homes, burned the town to the ground and left at least 22 soldiers dead and hundreds injured.
Garang said the deployment will bring security to the area, by removing the northern and southern rival forces and their associated militias. They will be replaced by southern and northern troops under joint command.
While he lauded it as a first step, Garang said the main issue of border demarcation remains to be resolved.
The agreement -- signed by Sudan's President Omar el-Bashir and his First Vice President and former adversary, Salva Kiir -- also promised an interim administration for the area by next week, and said the region's border would be drawn by mutually agreed upon professional agency.
If they fail to agree on which agency to use, the matter would be submitted to the international arbitration court in The Hague to pick an institution.
"It is a step forward. It will narrow the differences and will reduce the feelings of bitterness," he said.
There has been no mass return of the displaced to the area since the fighting in mid-May, according a U.N. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media. Most are waiting to see how effective the joint military units will be in maintaining security.
The United Nations Mission in Sudan aided the deployment of the southern force. Some 320 southern army fighters were airlifted from the south to the town of Wau, about 120 miles from Abyei, and then drove the rest of the way with U.N. assistance.
The 320 Sudanese army personnel arrived from the north without U.N. aid.
The U.N. mission also will provide tents and basic food for the force, said Kouider Zerrouk, a U.N. spokesman.
