9 killed in Abiyei as referendum vote continues

Militiamen have killed 9 warriors in a key oil- producing region in Southern Sudan, overshadowing a referendum vote on independence for the region.

The militiamen attacked Makere village in Abiyei on Sunday morning, reviving fears of renewed violence around the week-long referendum. The referendum is a centre piece of the 2005 peace deal between north and south that ended Africa's longest-running civil war.

The clashes in Abiyei have been going on for four days.

John Allan Namu, a reporter for our sister station NTV and who is currently in Abiyei, says the civil authorities in the region are meeting with monitors from United Nations and African Union to mitigate the clashes.

The militiamen are reported to have close ties with the North Sudan administrators.

The attacks came as a senior southern leader in Sudan on Sunday urged Khartoum to honour agreements on Abyei, after renewed fighting in the flashpoint oil district on the eve of an independence referendum for the south.

Deng Alor, a senior leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, reported clashes in Abyei, confirming reports that calm had returned to the district on Sunday after fighting the day before in which several people had been killed and wounded.

“If the National Congress (Party of the north) want peace, cooperation and benefits with the south, the way is to cooperate with the SPLM, and to accept the implementation of the agreement on Abyei,” Deng Alor said.

He added that militias organised by the NCP had carried out attacks in Abyei and in Bentiu, another key oil-producing district on the border.

Alor was speaking as voting began on Sunday in a referendum that will decide whether south Sudan opts to remain part of the north or choose independence, fulfilling a key provision of a 2005 peace agreement between the two sides.

A vote in Abyei to choose whether it wants unity with the north or south was also part of the 2005 accord and due to coincide with the independence referendum.

But polling there was indefinitely postponed after neither side was able to agree on who should be eligible to participate.