Juba moves to claim disputed oil-rich Abyei

A map showing the disputed Abyei region straddling Sudan and South Sudan (Nation Media Group)

South Sudan has given the strongest signal yet of its intention to claim the disputed border region of Abyei as part of its territory, based on the results of a controversial referendum held more than 11 years ago, the outcome of which it initially rejected.

First Vice President Riek Machar officially received the referendum report on January 4 from a team from Abyei Area Administration led by Chief Administrator Dr Chol Deng Alak and promised to forward it to the executive and parliament for adoption, a policy shift from October 2013, when Juba rejected the near-unanimous decision by one of the two main ethnic communities in Abyei to be in South Sudan.

Dr Machar said he would first forward the report—in which the Ngok Dinka ethnic group voted 99 percent to belong to the South — to the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, from where it would be sent as a memo to the Governance Cluster, the Cabinet, and finally to the National Legislative Assembly for deliberation and endorsement.

Source: https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/juba-moves-to-claim-disputed-oil-rich-abyei-4882638