A woman awaits food distribution in Abyei | Credit | UN File photo

The Undersecretary of the UN Peacekeeping Operations has called on South Sudan and Sudan to use their new-found cordial bilateral relations to resolve the status of the Abyei region.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix says Juba’s relations with Khartoum has improved after Sudan mediated the South Sudan peace talks, and with President Salva Kiir currently mediating talks between the Sudanese Sovereign Council and armed opposition groups.

Abyei has remained a contested region between the two countries since 2005.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement put aside issues related to Abyei Administrative Area to be determined by the Presidency made up of President Salva Kiir and former Sudanese President Omar al Bashir.

“No progress has been made in the establishment of joint governance institutions, including the police, courts and the corrections –either,” Lacroix told the UN Security Council meeting in New York on Thursday.

Over the years, there have also been reports of criminal activities in the disputed region, including cattle rustling, carjacking, robbery, and grenade attack in Amiet market due to lack of a joint administration.

In 2018, the United Nations said domestic issues affecting South Sudan and Sudan have overshadowed their willingness in resolving the Abyei issue.

It also raised concerns over the lack of implementation of the work of the Joint Border and Verification Monitoring Mechanism by South Sudan and Sudan in regards to the Abyei area.

In July, President Salva Kiir handed over the Abyei area dossier to a prominent area leader, Deng Alor, to follow up on the resolution of the final status of the region.

This week, South Sudan and Sudan signed a joint border delimitation agreement, specifying areas of contention and recommitting to withdrawing from all disputed areas. He says the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee has not met since November 2017.

Lacroix said the two countries should seize the moment and determine the final status of Abyei.

“The continued partnership between Sudan and South Sudan –notwithstanding the recent change of government in Khartoum – presents a unique opportunity to move the political process forward on the border issues,” the French diplomat continued.

In 2011, leaders in South Sudan and Sudan missed an opportunity to organize a referendum simultaneously with the self-determination exercise in South Sudan, as prescribed in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005.

The Sudanese government wanted the nomadic Arab Misseriya tribe, whose cattle accesses pasture lands in Abyei annually, be accorded full voting rights.

But South Sudan said the Abyei Protocol in the CPA, the ruling by the International Permanent Court of Arbitration proclaimed that only the Ngok Dinka tribe and permanent residents may vote.