Sudan Adopts Referendum Law For
Oil-Rich Abyei
The
Sudanese parliament has adopted a law that will govern a
referendum in the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei.
The referendum, scheduled for January 9, 2011, will allow
residents of the Abyei, on the border between North and South
Sudan to decide whether they want to remain part of the North or
join the South, should it become independent.
Article 24 of the law gives the right to vote to the Ngok Dinka
tribe that is loyal to the South.
Flashpoint
Parliament's deputy speaker said the tribe had previously
threatened military action if its demands are not met and that
some details on who was eligible to vote had yet to be finalised.
Abyei, whose people are among the poorest in Sudan, lies along
the north-south border which is still not demarcated.
Its potential as a flashpoint is increased by the fact that many
of Sudan's oil fields traverse the contested north-south
boundary.
Sudan's civil war claimed an estimated 2 million lives, drove 4
million from their homes and destabilised much of east Africa.
NAN/Qasim/Yinka
