A minister from the northern government said Sunday the northern army has taken control of the disputed Abyei region and is clearing it of armed forces from the south. "The Sudanese armed forces control Abyei and are cleansing it of illegal forces," Amin Hassan Omar, a minister of state for presidential affairs, told reporters after meeting a delegation of the UN Security Council in Khartoum.
He said the northern army had acted only after the southern army had recently moved unauthorized forces into the disputed region in repeated violation of the 2005 peace agreement. "The government is committed to the peace agreement but the southern army wanted to enforce a unilateral solution," he said.
The United Nations had said earlier that the northern army deployed 15 tanks alone in one area of the main town, also called Abyei.
The southern army (SPLA) said it had pulled out all forces of Abyei town after northern forces took control of it but was worried about the fate of other troops and civilians fleeing the region.
"We didn't declare war," said southern army spokesman Col. Philip Aguer. "The National Congress Party (Sudan's ruling party) and the Sudan Armed Forces declared war on us."
Southern Sudan fought the north for more than two decades in a brutal war that claimed more than 2 million lives and forced more than 4 million people to flee their homes. A peace deal in 2005 offered the south the chance for independence and it overwhelmingly voted to secede in a January referendum. It is due to become the world's newest country in less than two months but the Abyei violence threatens to further destabilize an already volatile region.
Aguer called for the UN "to protect the people of Abyei," saying that the northern government intends to "displace civilians and commit human rights violations as they did in Darfur." Several members of the Abyei government were missing, he said.
