Amnesty International says it is imperative that the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei is fully deployed
(Corrects to show acronym for United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei is UNISFA not UNIFSA in sixth paragraph)
NAIROBI (AlertNet) – The United Nations must do more to help tens of thousands of displaced Sudanese people return safely to the contested region of Abyei, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.
Sudan’s army took control of the contested town in May, driving out almost the entire population of 100,000, most of whom are living in makeshift camps over the border in South Sudan.
“The Sudanese Army and allied militia have driven virtually the entire population out of Abyei and burned down their homes so as to prevent their return,” Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s senior crisis response adviser, said in a statement.
Abyei is one of several border regions contested between the two states following the secession of South Sudan from Sudan on July 9.
Abyei was due to hold a referendum in January to decide whether it would become part of Sudan or South Sudan. But it was cancelled due to disagreements over who would be entitled to vote. On June 20, the two sides agreed to withdraw their forces but they have not done so.
Sudan has said it will not withdraw its troops until the U.N. peacekeeping force, the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), reaches its full deployment of 4,000 Ethiopian troops.
“It is imperative that the U.N. learns from the failures of UNMIS (United Nations Missions in the Sudan) and ensures that UNISFA is fully deployed and given the necessary human and material resources to enable it to fulfil its mandate to protect the civilians” Rovera said.
“The first step is to create the necessary security conditions in Abyei for the safe return of the population and to put in place robust mechanisms to implement the protection of civilians and human rights monitoring aspects of UNISFA’s mandate”.
South Sudan’s army has withdrawn, but individual soldiers remain in Abyei, Amnesty said.
Rovera described Abyei as a ghost town, populated only by soldiers and U.N. peacekeepers.
“Charred homes and the shells of looted buildings testify to the horrors that took place in Abyei” she said.
Displaced people in South Sudan told Amnesty they wished to go home but were scared of renewed attacks by Sudan’s armed forces.
“There is no food,” one woman in Mayen Abun camp in South Sudan said in the report.
“Sometimes I collect wild fruits to eat.”
In August, U.N. human rights investigators were denied access to Abyei.
More than 80,000 Sudanese have sought refuge in South Sudan from clashes between government forces and insurgents on the northern side of the poorly-marked and tense border, according to the United Nations.
More than 410,000 people have been displaced in the border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, where Sudan's army is fighting insurgents who were allied with southern rebels during decades of civil war that culminated in South Sudan's secession.
Faltering negotiations over post-secession issues such as oil, debt, disputed areas and transitional finance, as well as a military build-up on both sides of the border, risk creating further instability.
(Editing by Rebekah Curtis)
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