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UN evacuates staff in Sudan
15/05/2008 08:00 - (SA)
Khartoum - The United Nations evacuated non-essential staff from the flashpoint Sudanese town of Abyei on Wednesday after fighting broke out between government troops and southern ex-rebels, an official said.
"We are very concerned about what is happening in Abyei in the last 24 hours. It is alarming because there is fighting in the centre of the town using heavy weapons," UN spokesperson Khaled Mansour told AFP in Khartoum.
"We have evacuated our non-essential staff from Abyei to Kadugli which is standard practice in such situations. The rest of our staff are still there to perform their duties," said Mansour.
A helicopter flew out around 20 people, including about 10 UN personnel, and other aid workers from the small, impoverished town.
The United Nations called on both the Sudanese armed forces and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) - which fought a two-decade civil war with Khartoum until a 2005 peace agreement - to cease hostilities immediately.
Representatives of both sides met international peacekeepers in Abyei and agreed on measures to defuse the tension, Mansour said.
The SPLM and army militia reportedly clashed about 10 kilometres north of Abyei on Tuesday. On Wednesday, heavy fighting erupted in the city itself with guns, grenades and rocket-launchers, punctuated by lulls.
Aid workers speaking to AFP by telephone had no information of any civilian casualties but said at least two soldiers had been killed.
Shops were closed and the streets deserted, they said.
The town lies at the centre of a district on the border between north and south Sudan whose oil wealth is bitterly contested by the two sides.
The SPLM says it is losing patience with what it sees as the failure of President Omar al-Beshir's National Congress to implement a protocol to govern the area during a transition period under the 2005 peace deal.
In 2011, Abyei will hold a referendum on whether to retain its special administrative status in the north or be incorporated into the south; and a second one on whether the south should break away as an independent state.
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