Disputed Abyei votes to join South Sudan

Ethnic group Ngok Dinka people celebrate in Juba on October 31, 2013, the results of an unofficial referendum of residents of contested region Abyei to decide if it lies in Sudan or South Sudan.

What you need to know:

  • Residents of contested region Abyei voted overwhelmingly to join South Sudan in an unofficial referendum, election officials said today, amid warnings the poll could inflame tensions in the volatile region.
  • Celebrations including dancing and music broke out after the results were announced.
  • The Dinka Ngok who is the original inhabitants of the land held the referendum unilaterally, but Juba and Khartoum had said they would not recognise the vote.

JUBA, Thursday

Residents of contested region Abyei voted overwhelmingly to join South Sudan in an unofficial referendum, election officials said today, amid warnings the poll could inflame tensions in the volatile region.

“The referendum committee has announced the results, and the number of people who have chosen to become part of South Sudan is 99.9 per cent of the vote,” Mr Luka Biong, spokesman for the Abyei Referendum High Committee, said.

Celebrations including dancing and music broke out after the results were announced, he said.

African Union chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has said the vote was illegal and its organisers risk sparking a return to war between civil war foes in Juba and Khartoum.

“They pose a threat to peace in the Abyei area, and have the potential to trigger an unprecedented escalation on the ground... with far-reaching consequences for the region as a whole,” she said in a statement on Monday.

Some 63, 059 out of 63,433 voters that took part in the plebiscite voted for the region to join South Sudan, said Deng Biong Mijak, the commission’s head of legal affairs.

There were 64,771 registered voters, indicating that the turnout was at 97.9 per cent.

Only 12 voters were in favour of Sudan, constituting 0.02 per cent of the vote, and there were 362 invalid votes, constituting 0.57 per cent were spoiled.

Mr Mijak said the exercise was peaceful, transparent and fair.

He however said the civic education was low among the voters.

“The time and resources were low for civic education,” he said.

The Dinka Ngok who is the original inhabitants of the land held the referendum unilaterally, but Juba and Khartoum had said they would not recognise the vote.

Mr Mijak said the vote might be recognised with time.

“Even those who were vocal are not talking now,” he said in reference to those who criticised the exercise.

Another member of the committee who did not want to be named said a new diplomatic effort will follow the announcement of the result so that it is recognised.

He said South Sudan was ready to accept the result but that it did not want to be seen to have been behind the vote.

Patrolled by some 4,000 Ethiopian-led UN peacekeepers, the area is home to the settled Ngok Dinka tribe, closely connected to South Sudan, as well as the semi-nomadic Arab Misseriya, who traditionally move back and forth from Sudan grazing their cattle.

Only the Ngok Dinka voted — although organisers insist it was open to all residents — and the Misseriya have already angrily said they will not recognise the results.

“This referendum is none of our business and it is something with no value... no one in the world will recognise this referendum,” top Misseriya chief Mukhtar Babo Nimir said.

“From our side, we will not conduct any referendum”, in order not to give legitimacy to the ballot, he added.

Abyei was meant to vote on whether to be part of Sudan or South Sudan in January 2011 — the same day Juba voted overwhelmingly to split from the north — as part of the 2005 peace deal which ended Sudan’s two-decade long civil war.

That referendum was repeatedly stalled, and Sudanese troops stormed the Lebanon-sized enclave in May 2011 forcing over 100,000 to flee southwards, leaving a year later after international pressure.

“The people are celebrating, there is dancing and music, and the nine chiefs of the Ngok Dinka are marching, they will sign a declaration of committment to join South Sudan,” Biong added.

Analysts have warned the poll could trigger fresh violence.

Zacharia Diing Akol, of the South Sudan’s think tank the Sudd Institute, warned this week of a “potentially explosive, precarious situation”, noting that Khartoum and Juba fought over the enclave in 2008 and 2011.

“The Ngok Dinka political leadership is aware that neither country will accept the results of the referendum,” the Small Arms Survey said, a Swiss-based research group, but explaining that the “high-risk strategy” of the vote was “the one thing” the Ngok Dinka could do for itself.