South Sudan Border Dispute Causing Humanitarian Crisis, Say Church Leaders - Albany Tribune

Written by Albany Tribune

November 19, 2012

As politicians wrangle ahead of an early December deadline over the still-disputed status of the oil-rich region of Abyei, straddling the border of Sudan and South Sudan, local church leaders appeal for help in the face of a potential humanitarian crisis, reports Open Doors.

According to Open Doors, both governments have been asked to approve an African Union proposal to resolve the status of the Abyei region. Sudan is stalling, keen to avoid the proposed referendum next year on self-determination for an area the size of Lebanon, a referendum which has already been previously postponed.

Open Doors says that while arguments over nationality drag on, thousands of people face near-starvation in villages devastated by the conflict – particularly since May 2011 when a combination of northern militias, led by tanks and 5,000 Sudanese Army troops, destroyed roughly 90 percent of Abyei town.

Now a major humanitarian crisis is unfolding as people displaced by fighting start to return to desolate villages, where even water boreholes have been badly damaged, following the withdrawal of Sudanese government troops in June 2012.

Displacement camps en route, already home to thousands and hugely over-stretched, are unable to feed them. Many are left to dig for roots and forage for edible leaves.

According to Open Doors, in Abyei town and its surrounds, a frequent flashpoint for violence, people are returning to find there is nothing left of their villages – as occupying Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) destroyed almost all buildings and infrastructure. Abyei is still a “no-go” area for most aid agencies, due to tight restrictions imposed by Khartoum and security concerns.

Humanitarian needs grow worse by the day, according to church leaders. They estimate that up to 20,000 people have arrived in the Abyei area already, with 2,000 reportedly arriving in Abyei town in a single week recently.

One of the most appalling situations is to be found in 60 km from Abyei town in Agok, a major staging post for returnees and the biggest centre for internally displaced people (IDPs) in the area.

With their own church premises and compounds almost completely destroyed too, church leaders formed an Inter-Church Committee (ICC), representing Roman Catholic, Episcopal Church of Sudan and Pentecostal congregations, to co-ordinate relief. Their work recently received a boost when international partners managed the difficult logistics to deliver a convoy of 40 tons of sorghum, 1,500 mosquito nets and medicine to Agok.

A team member involved in this delivery in late October described the situation as “shocking.” “Occupation by the SAF has left the area in complete shambles,” he said. “The infrastructure is completely destroyed. Is Abyei important only because of its oil . . . and not because of its indigenous people?”

The ICC is providing food, water, shelter and education, as well as peace-building initiatives and trauma-healing; in the longer term, it wants also to extend its areas such as healthcare and rebuilding livelihoods.

Open Doors reports that church leaders say the few aid agencies still working in Agok, such as the World Food Programme, give IDPs priority over returnees in food distributions; even then, they say only half of IDPs are receiving food. Many of the IDPs in Agok have been there since the Sudanese troops invaded in May 2011, displacing up to 150,000 people. Many had also been displaced in earlier violence between SAF and Southern troops, in 2008.