15 die In Clashes In Abyei

28 February 2011 – (Abyei) – At least fifteen people have been killed in Abyei during fresh clashes between the Messeriya militias and the southern Sudan Police Forces over the weekend.

The spokesperson of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Abyei area, Mister Wor Majak Akol spoke to SRS by phone from Abyei on Monday.

[Wor Akol]: “Yesterday at around ten o’clock in the morning Messeriya militias supported by the Sudan Armed Forces attacked an area called Dodaj which is about thirteen kilometers north of Abyei. This claimed lives of seven police men and four of them sustained injuries and the police chased the militias up to another area called Noam and there we found eight of them. For sure the incident has its impact. It occurred as a result of irresponsible statements from N-C-P officials and in particular statements by General Salah Abdalla Gosh who stated that Abyei will remain a northern territory, and this statement gave the Messeriya tribe a moral incentive to go and attack the area so that Abyei could remain part of the north”.

However, the N-C-P Chairman in Abyei area, Mister Zakaria Atem has refuted allegations by the S-P-L-M that the Messeriya Militias were backed by government forces.

Mister Atem spoke to SRS from Abyei on Monday.

[Zakaria Atem-Arabic]: “It was the Messeriya Arabs who came and attacked these people nobody else did that and after they killed these people they escaped and they were chased as they escaped into two directions via Todaj into an area called Amet and there they had wanted to escape but there was no way for them and they ran north wards. This is an aspect of the incident. Secondly, the statement that it was the N-C-P is not true. As an N-C-P I would like to say what happened was a result of something. Northern part of Abyei is now blocked nobody comes to Abyei from that side.”

Mister Atem is urging authorities in the federal government and the GoSS to stop the on-going clashes in Abyei.

That was the N-C-P chairman in Abyei, Zacharia Atem speaking to SRS by phone from Abyei on Monday.