Expedite final settlement of Abyei disputed area, Chief admin urges gov’t

JUBA — South Sudan’s Chief Administrator of the disputed Abyei area, Kuol Deim Kuol, on Sunday called on the government of South Sudan to expedite settlement of the final status of the oil-rich region.

He made the call during a speech at the 5th Governors’ Forum this morning.

Kuol said that he is hoping the recommendations and resolutions of the governor’s forum will significantly contribute to settling the final status of Abyei.

“At the forum, we have appealed to our government of national unity to expedite the settlement of the final status of the Abyei area,” Kuol said.

He said the issue of Abyei should be addressed so that peace can prevail in the area.

“It is very important because our people have suffered a lot and we believe that most of our problems in the Abyei area are connected to this issue. Unless the final settlement of the Abyei area is reached, our people will never be in peace,” he said 

Abyei covered 4,000 square miles of desert, farmland, and oil fields located along the ill-defined border between Sudan and South Sudan.

Abyei has been a contested area since South Sudan gained independence in 2011.

Under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended the 22-year civil war, Abyei was granted special status, and a joint administration was set up in 2008 to run the area until the referendum decided its fate.

But both Sudan and South Sudan failed to determine who is eligible to take part in the vote.