The Abyei Special Administrative Area () is an area of on the border between South Sudan and Sudan that has been accorded "special administrative status" by the 2004 Protocol on the Resolution of the Abyei Conflict (Abyei Protocol) in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the Second Sudanese Civil War.“Protocol on the resolution of Abyei conflict”, Government of the Republic of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, 26 May 2004 (hosted by reliefweb.int) The capital of the Abyei Area is Abyei Town. Under the terms of the Abyei Protocol, the Abyei Area is considered, on an interim basis, to be simultaneously part of both the Republic of South Sudan and Republic of Sudan, effectively a condominium.
As part of the 2011 independence process, a separate referendum was to be held in Abyei on whether they wanted to join Sudan or South Sudan; however an official referendum was never held.
In contrast to the borders of the former district, the Abyei Protocol defined the Abyei Area as "the area of the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms transferred to Kordofan in 1905". In 2005, a multinational border commission established this to be those portions of Kordofan south of 10°22′30″ N.“Why Abyei Matters”, African Affairs, 107/426, 1–19, 23 December 2007 However, following continued disputes that erupted into violence and threatened the CPA, an international arbitration process redrew Abyei's boundaries in 2009 to make it significantly smaller, extending no further north than 10°10′00" N.
History
The Sudan Tribune claims that the Dajo people were located in the region of Abyei prior to the seventeenth century, before being displaced by new migrants. From at least the eighteenth century Abyei was inhabited by the agro-pastoralist Ngok Dinka, a sub-group of the Dinka of Southern Sudan. The Messiria, a nomadic Arab people, who spend most of the year around their base at Muglad in northern South Kurdufan, would graze their cattle south to the Bahr river basin in Abyei during the dry season.“Resolving the Boundary Dispute in Sudan’s Abyei Region” by Dorina Bekoe, Kelly Campbell and Nicholas Howenstein, United States Institute of Peace, October 2005 , International Crisis Group, 12 October 2007, p. 2 Abyei's permanent residents were thus the southern Dinka, but half the year the Dinka were outnumbered by the Muslim, northern Misseriya."Collapse of a Country: A Diplomat's Memoir of South Sudan." By Nicholas Coghlan. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2017. At the establishment of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, the Messiria were predominantly located in the province of Kordofan (considered "northern"), while the Ngok Dinka were located in Bahr el Ghazal (considered "southern"). In 1905, after continued raids by the Messiria into Ngok Dinka territory, the British redistricted the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms into Kordofan. The reason was threefold: to protect the Ngok Dinka from raids by the Messiria and thus pacify the area; to demonstrate that a new sovereign power was in control; and to bring the two feuding tribes under common administration.Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Hague "On Delimiting Abyei" 22 July 2009 / p221-222 When the British left in 1956, they left the status of Abyei unclear.
The two peoples began to take separate paths with the onset of the First Sudanese Civil War (1956–1972), in particular the 1965 massacre of 72 Ngok Dinka in the Misseriya town of Babanusa. The Ngok Dinka were thus drawn to the Anyanya, while the Messiria were favored by the Khartoum-based government and became firmly associated with the north. The 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement that ended the war included a clause that provided for a referendum allowing Abyei to choose to remain in the north or join the autonomous South. This referendum was never held and continued attacks against Ngok Dinka led to the creation of Ngok Dinka unit in the small Anyanya II rebellion, which began in Upper Nile in 1975. The discovery of oil in the area, among other north–south border regions, led President Gaafar Nimeiry to try the first of many initiatives to redistrict oil rich areas into northern administration.
The Ngok Dinka unit of Anyanya II formed one of the foundations of the rebel movement at the beginning of the Second Civil War in 1983. Many Ngok Dinka joined the rebels upon the outbreak of hostilities. Partially as a result of their early entry into the war, many Ngok Dinka rose to leadership positions in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), becoming closely associated with John Garang. In contrast, the Messiria joined the hostilities on the side of the government in the mid-1980s. They formed frontline units as well as Murahleen, mounted raiders that attacked southern villages to loot valuables and slaves."Sudan: Breaking the Abyei Deadlock", pp. 2–3 By the end of the war the intense fighting had displaced most Ngok Dinka out of Abyei, which the Misseriya state as justification for ownership of the area.
Status dispute Abyei Protocol in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement The status of Abyei was one of the most contentious issues in the negotiation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The first protocol signed, the 2002 Machakos Protocol, defined Southern Sudan as the area as of independence in 1956. It thus excluded the SPLA strongholds in Abyei, the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile, known collectively during the talks as the Three Areas. The SPLA negotiators then spent several years attempting to give these regions the right to a referendum in which they could decide if they want to be under the administrative control of the north or south. This would potentially mean that these regions would become part of a nation of South Sudan after the 2011 independence referendum. The government blocked these attempts, stating that the Machakos Protocol had already delineated the border for the Three Areas in favor of the north."Sudan: Breaking the Abyei Deadlock", p. 3
The deadlock was finally broken by pressure from the United States. U.S. presidential envoy John Danforth circulated a draft agreement, which the U.S. convinced the government to sign despite its inclusion of a referendum. The Protocol on the resolution of the Abyei conflict put Abyei into a special administrative status government directly by the presidency. The precise borders of the area were to be determined by an Abyei Borders Commission (ABC), followed by a referendum commission to identify Messiria that are resident in Abyei and could thus vote in local elections in 2009; all the Ngok Dinka were to be considered resident, it being their traditional homeland.
Abyei Borders Commission According to an annex to the protocol adopted in December 2004, the Abyei Borders Commission was to be composed of 15 persons: five appointed by the government, five by the SPLA and three by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, and one each by the United States and the United Kingdom. Only the five impartial experts could present the final report. The five appointed were: Godfrey Muriuki of the University of Nairobi; Kassahun Berhanu of the Addis Ababa University; Douglas H. Johnson, an author of several works on southern Sudan; Shadrack Gutto, a lawyer from South Africa; and Donald Petterson, a former ambassador to Sudan. The ABC determined the boundary at approximately 10°22′30″N., 87 km (54 mi) north of the town of Abyei, following the agreed rules of procedure.“The Abyei Protocol Demystified” , Sudan Tribune,11 December 2007 The process and the map showing the boundary is detailed by Johnson.
The ABC presented their report to the president on 14 July 2005, whereupon it was immediately rejected by the government, who accused the experts of using sources after 1905 in their determination of the boundaries. The death of John Garang later that month pushed all other issues off the national agenda, but the SPLA maintains that the terms of the Abyei protocol must be held to."Sudan: Breaking the Abyei Deadlock", p. 4 Government resistance to an agreement is largely based on an attempt to hold on to the oil reserves and oil pipelines in the area."Sudan: Breaking the Abyei Deadlock", p. 9
Renewed tensions and violence In October 2007, rising tensions between the SPLA and government resulted in the SPLA temporarily withdrawing from the Government of National Unity over several deadlocked issues, notably Abyei.“SUDAN: Southern leaders in talks to salvage unity government”, IRIN, 18 October 2007 At the time, the International Crisis Group stated, "What happens in Abyei is likely to determine whether Sudan consolidates the peace or returns to war"."Sudan: Breaking the Abyei Deadlock", p. 11 Armed violence erupted in the Abyei region during late 2007 and throughout 2008. Clashes occurred both between the SPLA and Messiria fighters and between the SPLA and government troops.
Messiria leaders had objected to demarcation provisions of the CPA which they claim have a negative impact upon Messiria access to grazing lands. These grievances fed into armed clashes in December 2007, which killed at least 75 people, and further violence in February and March 2008, resulting in numerous deaths and civilian displacement. These clashes were considered by analysts to represent a serious threat to the peace process and trigger a resumption of civil war.Wheeler, S. 2008, ‘Armed Sudanese nomads block key north-south route’, Reuters Africa, 12 February. Retrieved 11 March 2008.IRIN 2008, ‘SUDAN: War of words after scores killed in Abyei’, IRIN, 3 March. Retrieved 4 March 2008.BBC 2008, ‘Arab nomads dead in Sudan clashes’, BBC News, 2 March. Retrieved 4 March 2008.Shahine, A. 2008, ‘Sudan nomads clash with ex-rebels, dozens killed’, Reuters AlertNet, 2 March. Retrieved 4 March 2008.Sudan Tribune 2008, ‘Fresh fighting breaks out in Sudan north-south region’, Sudan Tribune, 22 March. Retrieved 22 March 2008.IRIN 2008, ‘SUDAN: Rising tension in Abyei as clashes displace hundreds’, IRIN, 24 March. Retrieved 25 March 2008. The Messiria were not believed to be directly controlled by Khartoum, however analysts pointed out that local disputes over resources are readily manipulated by outside forces.Kilner, D. 2008, ‘Clashes on Sudan’s North-South border threaten peace deal’ , Voice of America, 10 March. Retrieved 10 March 2008.
Following the violence of February and March, the Sudanese government deployed a contingent of 200 or more soldiers to Abyei town on 31 March 2008.Wheeler, S. 2008, ‘Northern troops enter disputed Sudan oil town’, Reuters AlertNet, 2 April. Retrieved 4 April 2008. Armed clashes between these troops and the SPLA occurred during May 2008 resulting in dozens of deaths and the displacement of an estimated 25,000 civilians.Al Jazeera 2008, ‘Many dead in Sudan clashes’, Al Jazeera English, 16 May. Retrieved 17 May 2008.IRIN 2008, ‘SUDAN: Abyei town deserted after fresh clashes’, IRIN, 16 May. Retrieved 17 May 2008.BBC 2008, ‘Fighting in disputed Sudan town’, BBC News, 20 May. Retrieved 20 May 2008.BBC 2008, ‘Tensions flare in central Sudan’, BBC News, 24 May. Retrieved 26 May 2008. Much of Abyei town was razed; publicist Roger Winter stated that "the town of Abyei has ceased to exist".Winter, R. 2008, ‘Abyei Aflame: An update from the field’, enough: the project to end genocide and crimes against humanity, 30 May. Retrieved 3 August 2008.
Arbitration by a panel under the Permanent Court of Arbitration