Top tribal leader allied to South killed in Sudanese flashpoint region

PanARMENIAN.Net - A top tribal leader allied to South Sudan was killed in clashes involving a rival Sudanese tribe in the Abyei region disputed by the African neighbors on Saturday, May 4 both sides said, an incident that risks fuelling new tensions in the flashpoint area, according to Reuters.

Abyei, straddling the border between Sudan and South Sudan, is claimed by both sides, which fought one of Africa's longest civil wars.

In March, both countries agreed to resume cross-border oil flows and defuse tensions which have plagued them since South Sudan's secession in 2011 after an independence vote.

But they were unable to decide on the ownership of Abyei, which is inhabited by the Dinka tribe allied to South Sudan and the Misseriya, an Arab tribe following Sudan.

Kuwal Deng Mayok, the top Dinka leader in Abyei, was killed by members of the Misseriya, another Dinka leader told Reuters, asking not to be named. A Misseriya official, Saddiq Babu Nimr, confirmed the death of Mayok but blamed it on a shooting incident with Ethiopian U.N. peacekeepers, which administer Abyei.

Abyei was meant to have like South Sudan an independence referendum but both sides have been unable to agree who should participate.

UNISFA has been running a temporary administration for Abyei since Sudan seized the region in May 2011 following an attack on an army convoy blamed by the U.N. on southern forces.

Sudan has withdrawn its forces since then from Abyei, which has fertile land and small oil reserves. Relations between Sudan and South Sudan improved much in March with a deal to resume oil exports from the landlocked South through the north, throwing both a lifeline.